Sneaky 27
by Mackiecam
Summary: Taking place immediately after the events of Security 26 (posted on this site), Stephanie resorts to extreme measures to clean up Vinnie's outstanding list of fugitives. At the same time, she tries to sort through her own feelings about a relationship with Ranger. NOTE: For those of you who are new to my series, you really should read Security 26 before Sneaky 27
1. Chapter 1

_**Sneaky Twenty-Seven: A Stephanie-Plum Inspired Novel**_

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The characters in this story are not my own and have been borrowed from Janet Evanovich's novels. The disclaimer is not my own but was so good that, when I saw it, I knew I had to use it!

 _I am doing something different this time. I plan on posting a chapter each Monday and Thursday, assuming that life does not get in the way. Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy it._

Chapter One

Vinnie had to be going insane.

I looked at my accordion file again, and tried to stuff another case file inside. There was no room. With three cases left over from last week, four from yesterday and the two that I just picked up, I was going to be busy. Nine skips were a lot to handle.

My name is Stephanie Plum, and I am a bounty hunter. I work part-time for my cousin, Vinnie, at the Vincent Plum Bail Bonds office. Vinnie provides a service to the felons of Trenton. When felons are assigned a trial date, they can either wait for their date to come up in jail, or they can pay bail and walk free until their court date. The bond will be returned to them when they show up for court.

Many felons do not have the money to pay this bond, however. That is where Vinnie comes in. For the price of fifteen percent of the bond and the exchange of some collateral, Vinnie will loan the felon the money to make bail. When the accused shows up for their court date, the court returns the bail bond to Vinnie and Vinnie returns the collateral to the felon. He keeps the fifteen percent as his transaction fee.

I don't have anything to do with that part of the business. I come into play when the felon decides not to show up for his or her court date. My job is to find them, haul them back into the system, and return them to jail to start the whole process again. The felons would then be assigned another court date and bail would be set for a higher amount.

When I return the felon to the system, Vinnie pays me ten percent of the price of the bond and keeps the remaining five percent as his transaction fee. Good deal for me, as long as I can find them. Bad deal if I can't find them, or if I can't bring them in. And since there is no base pay, my salary is totally dependent upon my questionable ability to bring in skips. I'm not the best bounty hunter in the world. Or even in Trenton, if truth be told.

Recently, I started working part-time for my good friend, Ranger. Ricardo Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, is the owner of the ultra-elite security company called Rangeman. With offices located in Trenton and Miami, Rangeman offers the best of personal security services to the wealthy and well-known. I am the company researcher for the Trenton office. Using extremely invasive search engines and getting information ranging from how old you were when you were toilet trained to the last time you filled your car with gas, I search out the background and private secrets of individuals and corporations, summarizing the information and any concerns that I may have into a report. This is used by staff when they are setting up a new security system, when an existing client wants a security check done on someone, or when Sales is trying to target a sales pitch. Spending so much time in front of the computer is boring and puts my feet to sleep – and often the rest of me as well – but it provides income stability, gives me benefits, and is safe. Having recently gone through some unsafe periods in my life, there is no downplaying the importance of security.

Lula came in the office. "It's hot out today. It's going to be a real steamer." Summer in New Jersey is always a steamer, and this summer was proving to be no exception. "I think today would be a good day to go to the beach." Lula, the person responsible for the bail bonds filing, acted as my bounty hunter assistant more than she did as a file clerk. That was probably good, as she was the worst file clerk in the whole world. Come to think of it, she wasn't much better as a bounty hunter. I think she was probably much more successful in her former profession – a 'ho – but she gave up that lifestyle when she was brutally assaulted a few years ago. She did not, however, give up the wardrobe and now that it was hot, her teeny, tiny spandex tops and skirts showed off her largeness to the extreme. Simply put, there was too much Lula and not enough fabric to go around.

Lula had a larger than life personality with the makeup and hair to match. A couple of inches shorter than my 5'7" frame, several pounds heavier, many cup sizes larger, everything about Lula screamed "look at me". She had brown skin, today her hair was orange to match her belly-baring day-glo orange top, jean cut-off shorts and orange flip-flops. On most people the look would be trashy. On Lula, it somehow works.

I am downright staid in comparison. Instead of a beautiful chocolate colour, my skin is a washed out pale white. Instead of warm brown eyes, my eyes are a boring blue. And instead of vibrant and ever changing hair colour, my hair is plain brown shoulder-length curls typically pulled back in a ponytail. Add in my average body shape and conservative clothing choices, I fade into the background when Lula is around. I don't mind this. I am happy to let her take the limelight.

"It's going to be a while before we go to the beach. We've got too much to do. When does Connie get back from her cousin's wedding?" I asked. The office manager, Connie Rosolli, took the week off work to attend the wedding in Rochester. This left Lula in charge of the office, which meant that I was flying solo in skip chasing.

"Two more days. Vinnie will be glad to have her back. He's been having to do all the bonding out of felons. He's not too impressed with having to work." Vinnie is the namesake of the bond office. A slimy sexual deviant, he looks like a weasel, acts like a weasel, and much like a weasel, has the thorough understanding of the depraved necessary to be an excellent bondsman. He typically spends most of his time in the office looking at porn sites and introducing Mr. Hand to Mr. Willy. He frequently deviates from regular porn to also watch animal porn. When his hand gets tired from jerking off, he spends his time on gambling websites. As I said, he acts like a weasel – no offence to weasels – and has an intimate understanding of the unsavory and immoral.

"I have a problem", I said, slapping my accordion file down on the desk. "I can't even fit all the files in the accordion file. What is Vinnie doing?"

"He seems to have lost his touch in deciding who he is going to bond out, that's for sure", agreed Lula.

"The last few weeks have been brutal trying to keep up with Vinnie's skips, but this week upcoming is going to be particularly difficult."

"Don't complain to him. He will bring in Joyce again." Joyce is my childhood nemesis, another sexual deviant who gets along well with Vinnie. She has worked in the past for Vinnie as a bounty hunter. She has only caught someone once – and that was with my help – but she has interfered several times with my own captures, resulting in the skip getting away. "She was in here yesterday. She was wearing her schoolgirl outfit." Vinnie hooks up with Joyce when his hand gets tired. His wife doesn't know or doesn't care. I have never been able to figure out which.

"Trust me. I don't want to do anything which will cause Vinnie to bring in Joyce. I hate that woman."

"After she shagged your ex-husband, I don't blame you." I was married for about ten minutes in a past life to Dickie Orr. The marriage ended when I walked in on the Dick with Joyce. It was the shortest marriage in Burg history – the community in which Joyce, Dickie and I grew up – and is still talked about to this day.

"She actually did me a favour. I wouldn't tell her that, though. I found out later that Joyce wasn't the only woman he was shagging."

"You did well to get away from him", Lula agreed.

"I did." I pulled out all nine case files. "There is a wide variety of cases here, and some for sure I would like you there to help me with them." I opened up the first file. "This skip, Marianne Browne, stole credit card info by working as a cashier and taking photos of the front and backs of credit cards. She then used the information to do online purchasing of items. She racked up thousands of dollars of clothing, household items and gifts before she was caught. Her house was crammed with stuff that she purchased on-line."

"She sounds like she could be smart, but not particularly violent. She could be a good one to go after by yourself."

"She could. This skip", I said, picking up the second file, "is not particularly smart. He went into a gas station with the intent to rob it. However, the gas station was busy and he did not want to appear suspicious. He filled his time while he waited for the store to empty by filling out a job application. Unfortunately for him, he used his real name. The police picked him up within the hour."

"He might have just forgot his court date. He doesn't sound particularly smart."

I put that file down and picked up the third. "This is another dumb crook story. I remember Morelli telling me about this when it happened." Morelli was my ex-boyfriend who would like to still be my boyfriend. He happens to be a dedicated and extremely good cop working for the Trenton Police Department. "The felon, Lucas Cooper, was an enterprising sort of person. He decided that he would be able to increase his sales of various illegal narcotics by cold calling residents. Unfortunately for him, he called Morelli. Morelli agreed to buy some crack and arranged to meet him at a local park. When Lucas handed over the drugs, Morelli arrested him. It was pretty funny at the time."

"Morelli has to like it when the drug dealers come knocking on his door."

"Almost literally." I picked up the fourth file. "Mila Madison. She showed up for her driving test drunk. I guess she was trying to smooth the nerves out. The assessor had her drive into the police parking lot to show her skills at parking and, while she was parked, the assessor walked into the police station to request a sobriety test to be done on the student driver. She was charged with DUI on the spot."

"Did she get her licence?" asked Lula.

"Nope, she did not."

"So she has a DUI and no licence? That's pretty sad."

"Tell me about it. The fifth here", I said as I put down the file and picked up another one, "is for disturbing the peace. A lady, Vivian Slater, phoned the police department repeatedly to complain about a dog barking. She said she was trying to sleep and the dog continued to bark. After several of the neighbours also called to report the disturbance, police officers were dispatched to the home. They found that it was the woman's own dog. She had locked it out, had forgotten that her dog was in the backyard and was complaining about her own dog. The police wrote her a citation for disturbing the peace."

"How stupid would you feel if that was you?"

"Reporting on yourself? Pretty stupid. This next file, for Vance Deville, is for someone who was transporting dynamite. That in itself is not a crime unless it goes off and what did it do? It went ka-boom."

"Was Deville all right?"

"I don't know. The file doesn't say, but he has to be still alive if he is wanted for skipping bail. The seventh case is for Jonathan Jones. He lied in court, giving false evidence in a rape case, giving a false alibi for the rapist. He was caught in the lie, and was arrested as a result."

"Perjury is a terrible thing. I guess he don't believe in no Bible."

"I guess not. The next case is for Isaac Wang. We brought him in a few weeks ago and a few weeks before that, and he has failed to show again at court. I don't know if you remember him. He was caught selling black market copies of movies. He had a vast number of boxes of movies at his house, and even more on his computer. When the police came to his house to talk to him, he was in the process of making disks to sell."

"I remember him. Nice guy. He offered us whatever movie we wanted for free if we just let him go."

"And I remember that you were going to take him up on it."

"Hey! He had some really good movies there! Some of them were still in the theatres", she said defensively.

"The last file is for Nolan Nyetta. This is a high bond. This guy is sick. Nolan has raped three little girls, giving them AIDS in the process."

"Ah, the virgin cure."

"What's that?"

"The virgin cure is the myth that having sex with a virgin will 'cure' a man by cleansing him from any kind of sexually transmitted infection."

"And there are men who actually believe this to be true?" I was horrified.

"Yes. Sick, isn't it? There are some little girls getting up in the morning, their biggest consideration being who they are going to play Barbies with, not knowing that by the end of the day they will be infected with a terrible disease, solely because they are virgins. As a 'ho, you always had to be careful about STIs. I never had one, but that was because I insisted on condom use and I got tested regularly. Part of the virgin cure myth says that the man can't use a condom. He has to dip his wick without covering up. Those little girls don't stand a chance. The fact that Nyetta has not shown up in court makes me wonder if he is still out there raping little girls. You might want to take Ranger on that one. We want that guy caught right away. I wouldn't want to take the chance that it gets messed up."

"You think I would mess it up?"

"Not purposely. Sometimes you have bad luck."

"Hunh." But really, what could I say to that? She was right. Sometimes I did have bad luck.

"Besides, if you take me I might purposely – by accident, of course – shoot him."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"I'm going to go after Isaac Wang first, the movie distributor. He knows me and I think will come easily – at least he did last time – and because he is a medium level bond it will take some pressure off Vinnie. Wish me luck!"

I left the office with Isaac's file in hand, the accordion file under my arm. I drove to Isaac's house, a modest two-story in Hamilton Township. Parking a couple of houses down the street, I sat for a minute taking the pulse of the neighbourhood. There were two children riding their bikes up and down the sidewalk, enjoying their summer vacation. There was a lady out taking advantage of the shade at the front of her house and gardening before the sun got too hot. And there was an older gentleman who, just having driven into his driveway, was taking to-go coffees and a bakery bag out of his car. I imagined that he was bringing breakfast home to his wife. It was my kind of breakfast.

I got out of the car and made sure that I had all my accessories in my purse. Gun, stun gun, pepper spray and cuffs. I made sure that the cuffs were at the top. They were the only thing I thought I was going to need.

I walked up the pathway and knocked on Isaac's door. I heard scrambling in the house, and saw the curtain twitch. Then I heard nothing. "Isaac, it's Stephanie. I know you're in there. I can either shout at the top of my lungs to make sure your neighbours all know I am bringing you in for rescheduling, or you can come with me peacefully. It's your choice. Either way, you are going into the precinct today. It's morning. If you come in now, we can have you rebonded out quickly and you will be home copying movies by this afternoon. If I take you in later today you might not be bonded out again until tomorrow. Your choice. Come in this morning or take the chance of having to spend the night in jail. You're a businessman. What are you going to choose?" There was silence on the other side of the door. "Isaac, you knew this would happen when you skipped your court date. This is a simple business deal. You miss your court date, you get brought in. That's how it works. You know this, as this isn't your first time around the block. This is what, your third time having me bring you in? Open the door."

"Go away."

"Sorry – can't do that. It's my job to bring you in. We have a saying around the office. "You play, you pay." That's something I've always admired about you. You understand that concept really well."

"I'm in my boxer shorts."

"You wouldn't be the first person I brought in wearing nothing but boxer shorts. However, because you have always been so reasonable to work with, as long as you let me in the house I will give you the time to finish up in the bathroom and get dressed."

"I haven't eaten yet either."

"I'll give you some time to have breakfast first. But you have to let me in for that. Otherwise, I'd have to break down the door, and that will leave you with a problem. You wouldn't be able to lock your house when you come to the station with me." That's a lie. I was good at a lot of things, but forcible entry was not one of them. I was banking on Isaac not knowing that, however. I was successful in not smiling as the door tentatively opened enough so that I saw Isaac's face through the crack.

"I don't want you to see me in my boxers."

"Why? Boxers cover you as much as shorts do, and you aren't the first person that I have seen in his boxers and hopefully you won't be the last."

The door opened wider and a red-faced Isaac, stepping aside to let me in, said "I just want to say, for the record, that my girlfriend bought these for me. I wear them because they are incredibly comfortable." I looked down to find a black pair of boxer briefs with the white outline of a hand on the crotch.

"Different, but why the big deal?"

"You haven't seen the back yet."

He turned around to display the words "it isn't going to suck itself" written across both cheeks. "It was a joke gift between my girlfriend and myself. We were trying to find the sluttiest underwear that we could find. I don't know where she got these, but it makes what I gave her look particularly tame."

"What did you give her? Panties with the picture of a squirrel on it, with the caption 'looking for nuts'?"

"Close. A thong with a picture of a beaver on it, with the saying 'I need wood'."

"I don't know. I think yours runs hand in hand, no pun intended, with your girlfriend's."

"Do you really think so?" Isaac brightened up at the possibility.

I started laughing. "Yeah, I do. How about you go change? I will buy you some breakfast on the way into the precinct." Isaac went upstairs and came down a few minutes later, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. He made sure all his windows were locked and his computer was turned off. Then we left the house.

* * *

I drove back to the bonds office. Vinnie was not in, which was probably a good thing. He has been overly annoying lately with so many skips outstanding. He is treating the outstanding money as if it was his own, and has been texting me regularly asking where his skips are. He has been driving me nuts.

"Isaac is going to want to be bonded out again", I told Lula, interrupting her game of Flappy Bird as I entered the office. "I'm not sure if he'll come in the next time either. He makes more money skipping bail than he spends paying us the fifteen percent. Fine by me. He is an easy skip to bring in." I handed her my body receipt. "Vinnie will have to write the check for that when he gets in."

"Who are you going to go after next?"

"I'm thinking Vivian Slater, the barking dog owner. She sounds so clueless I suspect that she just forgot her court date. She is a low bond, but she would still be good to bring in and, since she lives close to my parents' house, I was thinking of going home for lunch. I haven't said 'hi' in a few days, and my mother has been texting me asking whether I am dead."

* * *

Vivian Slater lived in the Burg, a pocket of Trenton originally settled primarily by Italians and Eastern Slavics. More recently it has become the melting pot of Trenton with residents, often new Americans, representing a wide range in countries. It is a working class neighbourhood where people are trying desperately to establish themselves and get ahead. It is the neighbourhood where I grew up.

Vivian Slater lived three streets over from my parents. I parked the car two houses down the street and took my purse out of the car. While I did not think the low bond and suspected non-violent nature of Vivian warranted me wearing my gun belt, I did put my Maglite and cuffs at the top of my purse. My cuffs to capture Vivian; my Maglite to bash in the head of the dog if it turned out to be an attack dog.

Walking up to the door, I heard a little yappy dog go nuts inside the house. I rang the doorbell and the dog alternated between growling and barking. I rang the doorbell again. After waiting a couple of minutes, I looked in the windows. I could see through the living room and dining room to the kitchen, and could see someone lying on the floor, feet sticking out through the doorway. I tried the door. It was locked. Running around the side of the house, I looked through the back door. Vivian was lying flat on her back on the ground. I tried the door and found it unlocked. I ran inside, tripping over the little dog, and felt for a pulse. I am not very good at doing that. I couldn't find a pulse, but knowing how useless I am at finding pulses I decided that the absence of a pulse didn't mean anything. I licked the back of my hand and placed it near her nose. I could feel Vivian's breath on my hand. Thank God.

The dog ran over to me and bit me. "Shit!" I took out my Maglite and whacked it lightly over the dog's head. The dog stood back and shook its head. Taking out my phone, I called 911. Giving dispatch the details, I wet a paper towel with cold water and placed it on her forehead. Leaving Vivian alone for a minute, I hobbled through the house to unlock the front door for the paramedics, all the while being nipped on the heels by her dog. On the way through, I found a dog crate in the dining room. Worried about the dog and how it would react to the paramedics, I put the dog in its crate. Then I returned to the kitchen to replace the paper towel on Vivian's head with a new, cold towel, and to smack the ground beside Vivian's ears and call her name in an attempt to get her to regain consciousness.

Seconds later the police and ambulance showed up. Carl Constanza and Big Dog were the first police officers on the scene. I did not know the names of the paramedics. "Did you scare your skip into a heart attack?" asked Carl. I knew Carl and Big Dog well. I had gone through Communion together with Carl and, although I met Big Dog more recently, he has been a first responder to my mishaps so often I feel like I also know him well.

"She didn't even see me. I just rang the doorbell and when I could not get an answer, I looked in the windows to see if I could see whether she was there. She was lying on the ground, so I ran around to the back to see if I could get in. The door was unlocked. When I got in, I could not get a response from her."

"She had a heart attack. If you had been even twenty minutes later, she would probably be dead", said the paramedic as they hustled her out of the house on a stretcher.

"The dog is in the crate, Carl. I put it there when I knew a lot of people were going to be in the house. The dog already was not happy having me in the house. It bit me once and tried to bite me twice more."

"Go to the hospital and get that treated properly. That looks like a nasty bite", advised Carl.

"Really? It hurts like the devil. I can't see it with it being on my calf. I have to go to the hospital anyway to make sure she is put into the lockdown section, and so I can get my body receipt."

"Do you need a ride?"

"Nope. I can drive, thanks." I hobbled out to the car, phoning my mother on the way. I know from experience that gossip travels faster than the speed of light in the Burg, but that it isn't always accurate. My mother will hear about me being in the hospital even before I am admitted, but the story might get a bit mixed up and have me being the person with the heart attack and my skip as the person with the dog bite. I didn't want to worry my mother overly. I was lucky. I got the answering machine.

"Hi, everybody. I just wanted to let you know that I'm all right. One of my skips had a heart attack and I was bitten by her dog when I was trying to help her. I am on the way to the hospital, primarily to get my body receipt but also to get my dog bite taken care of properly. Just wanted you to know so that you don't worry when you hear that I was at the hospital." Then, arriving at the hospital, I parked in short-term emergency parking and walked into the emergency room. It was bedlam. There had been two car accidents close by, with severe injuries in both. I spoke to the appropriate person in security and got my body receipt, then deciding that I did not want to wait for hours in Emergency for the dog bite to be cleaned properly, I left the hospital. Knowing that Rangeman had a better first aid kit than I did, I headed there, phoning Lula on the way. "I got my body receipt for Vivian. She is in the hospital in lockdown with a heart attack. Her dog bit me and it hurts like a bitch, so I am going to Rangeman for the afternoon. Don't tell Vinnie. I will be back chasing skips tomorrow."

"Okey-dokey. Make sure you disinfect the bite properly. You don't want to be getting no gangrene or nothing."

* * *

Rangeman is located in a seven-story office building in the heart of Trenton, a ten-minute drive away from anything important – the police station, the hospital, the bonds office, and my apartment. It contains three floors of staff residences, including the luxurious penthouse apartment where Ranger lives, three floors of office space, and one floor – plus the basement – of training facilities. I drove into the underground parking lot and parked in one of Ranger's personal spaces. He has four personal spaces and three cars to fill them, a Porsche Turbo 911, a Porsche Cayenne, and a Toyota Tacoma truck. I usually park in his fourth spot. I haven't ever asked whether this was all right with him but I have not heard any complaints and until I do I will continue to park there. His spots are the closest to the elevators.

I limped in the building and pressed the button for Ranger's apartment on the seventh floor. I looked at the back of my leg and saw that my leg was all bloody. Great. Another scab to add to the skinned knees I got a few days ago while chasing down a skip.

I got off the elevator and keyed my way into Ranger's apartment. Ranger had given me the key the first time I used his apartment as a safe house. Since then our relationship has changed. We have moved from mentor to friend to periodic lover to part-time boss. I am not sure what we are now. We are still good friends and Ranger is still my boss, but the lover designation has gone well past the periodic description. We have been on a handful of dates and I recently have met his family, but I would need to know a lot more about him before I could ever class our friendship as a romantic relationship.

Ranger's apartment is set up as two halves. The living half contains an open concept gourmet kitchen, dining room, and living room. This area is separated from the master suite by a hall and a powder room. The master suite is comprised of a sumptuous five-piece bathroom, a roomy walk-in closet, a large bedroom, and a spacious office/den combination. The entire apartment is decorated in masculine neutrals and dark woods with walls the colour of chocolate milk. I have stayed there enough to know that there is a shelf of my favourite foods in his kitchen, a drawer of my toiletries in his bathroom, and a section of his closet with my clothes.

Taking off my shoes at the door and dropping my purse on the kitchen counter, I walked back to the master ensuite. Running warm water in the sink, I got a clean facecloth and towel out of the cupboard and climbed up on the counter. I turned off the water and sat so that my calf was over the sink, taking off my blood-soaked sock and gingerly washing out the bite. A few seconds after I started washing my leg, I heard the front door open. "Babe?" Ranger asked as he came into the bathroom. Cuban-American in heritage, his Latino colouring and hard body made him look more like a GQ model than a James Bond. However, he had the kind of skills that would give even James a run for his money. Former Special Forces, Ranger has made a living by listening intently, always having his back to the wall, and blending in with the scenery. "What happened?"

"A skip had a dog", I said with disgust. Ranger took over washing out the bite as I continued to tell him what happened. "The skip had collapsed on the floor with a heart attack and the dog did not like the fact that I broke into her house to look after her. The dog bit me." Ranger grabbed the towel and patted the area dry.

"Was she all right?"

"I don't know. There had been two major car accidents come in to the hospital, so I didn't stick around. It was a zoo there. I got my body receipt and got out."

Ranger got out the first aid kit and helped me down from the counter. He led me over to the bed and had me lie down on it, face down, so that he could spread on the antibiotic cream and a bandage. "This is a pretty significant bite. It's going to take a while to heal."

"Does this mean I get out of training today?" I asked hopefully. As part of my job, Ranger requires me to practice self-defence and shooting daily. He has recently added cardio training to the requirements. I hate all of it. It was a toss-up as to what I hate the most, although I think cardio and shooting are tied for the number one spot.

"This means you get out of cardio and fighting for a couple of days. You still have to shoot, and you can still stretch." As my mother would say, beggars can't be choosers, and I would take what I could get.

Ranger taped a bandage in place and helped me off the bed. I walked awkwardly through to the bathroom and cleaned up the blood spatters off the sink. I rinsed out the washcloth and draped it over the side of the tub. Then I rinsed out the bloody sock and also draped it over the tub to dry. Ranger got me a pair of his socks to wear. "Have you had lunch yet?"

"No. Have you?"

"No. I was just about to break for lunch when Jorge called me to let me know that you looked pretty banged up on the feed." Ranger's facility is like Fort Knox. Only the private residences and the washrooms have escaped monitoring. Nothing can happen in the building without the control room knowing. "He was worried about you."

"I'll have to go down and let him know that I'm okay."

"Why don't we do that now, then grab some lunch and eat in my office. I'd like to hear about the skips you caught today." He led me from the apartment. "Are you doing more skip chasing this afternoon, or are you in the office doing research?"

"I am doing research for Rangeman this afternoon, as well as research for Vinnie. He has so many skips outstanding right now. I had nine starting out this morning, although I brought in two today. Vinnie is texting me hourly putting pressure on me to capture more and to capture them more quickly. It just keeps going from bad to worse. I don't think any of Vinnie's bondees are showing up in court lately. I seem to be getting them all."

"He does seem to be having a bad run of it. On Monday you had three skips. Are you saying you had six more show up in the last two days?"

"Incredible, isn't it? And now that Connie is at her wedding, I don't have Lula for backup. Some of these are skips that I really want backup for, so I can't do them until after Connie is back from her wedding. Vinnie is having a coronary and making noises about bringing in another bounty hunter to help out. Unfortunately, he usually means Joyce when he says that."

"I can take someone off patrol to send along with you for backup if you want."

"I may end up taking you up on that if I can't clean this list up myself." We walked on the Operations floor and into the control room. I walked over to Jorge. "Thank you for calling Ranger for help. I had a dog bite me at a skip's today, and my leg bled a bit."

"It looked like it was pouring down the back of your leg."

"It just needed cleaned up with some antiseptic. It's more uncomfortable than anything else. I would have gone home but you have a better first aid box here. I'm going down to the break room. Do you want anything?" Jorge and Calvin said that they were fine. Eduardo and Hector also said they were fine. "How are the new monitoring stations?" I asked them.

"Good, Steph", said Eduardo. "They are exactly the same as the old ones, even with everything located in the same placement at the stations. It should be seamless transferring from one station to another. The only difference is that these chairs are more comfortable."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

I told Ranger about my morning, about finding Vivian half dead on the floor and the protectiveness of her dog. I also told him about Isaac, and his unique slogan on his underwear. "I thought you were going to tell me that it said 'can you give me a hand' across the back", said Ranger.

"I thought it could have said 'don't bother me – I'm in my happy place'."

Ranger started to laugh. "How about 'all hands on deck'?"

"Or maybe 'say hello to my little friend'?"

* * *

I spent three hours researching Vinnie's skips. By the end of the searches I knew physical characteristics, favourite haunts, the names of past sexual partners and the skips' favourite colours. Ranger popped his head into my office. "Are you ready to head down to the shooting range?" he asked.

"As ready as I will ever be." I put away my files and locked my purse away in my desk drawer. Ranger had already visited the storeroom and picked up a box of bullets for me. He led me to the elevator and down to the basement.

"Were you working on Vinnie's work or Rangeman work this afternoon?"

"On Vinnie's work. I have to do something to get the files cleaned up. I mostly researched and printed off information. I will go through it after dinner this evening."

"Are you staying for dinner?"

"I was thinking I would grab something from the break room."

"Ella has already made enough for you to stay at my place for dinner, and then you can head back down to your office afterwards if you want to work more." Ella was Ranger's chef and housekeeper. She looks after Ranger and his apartment, keeping his life easy and stress-free. She is also responsible for feeding the Rangeman staff, making an assortment of food available in the break room 24/7.

"Thank you. I may take you up on that, although it will have to be a fast dinner. I still have a number of files to do for Rangeman this evening after I get through Vinnie's stuff."

Ranger handed me protection equipment and, when I had put it on, opened the door to the range for me. He cued up a body target and looked like he was smiling when I glared at him. It was a mock glare. About two months ago I shot someone. It was in self-defence, but after I shot him I found it very difficult to shoot body targets. They reminded me too much of real people. It was even more difficult when Ranger affixed photos of real people to the heads of the targets. Luckily, today he did not have any photos in his pocket.

I was starting to get used to shooting at body targets. I was getting better at aiming for the chest. I wasn't as good at aiming for the head. I shot a clip at the chest, getting many bulls-eyes. When I finished my seventeen shots, Ranger said "again. This time aim for kill shots at the head." This time my glare was real. Ranger refilled my clip, giving me a minute to get my bearings, then handed me my gun.

"It's just a piece of paper", I muttered to myself. I brought up my gun and shot a clip into the head with some success. Half of my shots made it somewhere into the head, with the other shots close by. After a few more targets and several more clips, I was able to get many of the shots somewhere in the head. For the last clip, Ranger instructed me to aim for the chest again. All of my shots made it into the black centre of the target.

"You have really improved over the last few weeks. Three months ago you couldn't hit a bulls-eye. Even one month ago you would not have been able to hit all your shots in the black centre. Now you are hitting more bulls-eyes than ever before, and you are hitting many more of the harder head shots as well." Ranger took down the target and handed it to me. "You should hang this up in your office. You did a really good job on it."

"Thanks, but I don't know if I want that constant reminder of guns in my office. I would rather it was a gun-free zone." We put away our protective gear and walked back towards the elevator. "What are we going to do in the gym this evening?"

"Just some stretches. Judging by the placement of that dog bite, you will find it pretty sore for fighting and, since you are still limping, I think cardio is going to be a little beyond you today as well."

"You know, I would like to come back with some smart-ass comment about how I would gladly get bitten by a dog to get out of cardio any day, but my leg really does hurt a lot and I think even I would prefer to do cardio over getting bitten."

We entered the gym. Ranger has made it a practice to shut down the gym when I am working out. He says that the distraction I present to the rest of the staff could cause injuries as the men would pay more attention to me than they would to what they were doing. Sometimes it is a pain being the only female, besides Ella, on staff. While Ranger blames the need to shut the gym down on the distraction factor that I present, I personally think that he just doesn't want his staff oogling me when I am in workout gear. On my side, although I feel guilty for disrupting the men's workout schedule, I am thankful that I don't have witnesses to my general lack of fitness and my radiating red face following cardio.

Ranger sent a memo out to all staff on the weekend announcing that he was going to shut the gym down from four thirty to six each afternoon. That was the time that he earmarked for running me through my paces. Fifteen minutes of stretches, half an hour to three quarters of an hour of self-defence training, fifteen minutes of cardio, and finishing with another fifteen minutes of stretching. It was my least favourite time of the day and was only tolerable because Ranger gives me massages after I work out. His massages are amazing. The dessert that he arranged for me to have for every time I do at least fifteen minutes of cardio doesn't hurt either. At Rangeman, dessert is non-existent and him arranging to give me dessert was a huge concession to my sweet tooth.

There were three people working out and, when they saw Ranger enter the gym with me, they immediately got off their machines and headed for the door. Ranger scrambled the security feed for the monitoring stations and followed the men out to the door, locking it after them.

"We are going to do some stretches, then do some slow-motion self-defence moves, followed by more stretching." Over on the mats, he led me through a series of stretches that over time were slowly becoming easier. Ranger saw me wince as I stretched my legs. "Does your bite feel hot at all?"

"It feels burning hot. Much like a hot poker is being stabbed into my leg. I don't understand. It didn't feel this bad immediately after I was bitten. It seems to have gotten worse as the day has worn on."

"That doesn't sound good, Babe. Let me see." He carefully peeled the tape off my leg and looked at the wound. "It is red and inflamed, definitely infected. Instead of finishing a workout, we're going to go to the doctor's before dinner. If the staff doctor is not available, we will find a walk-in clinic to go to. You need this taken care of sooner rather than later."

"Again, I think I would rather do the workout than have a need to go see the doctor." I smiled. "Remind me of this when I say that I would do anything to get out of exercising." I picked up my gun belt and limped to the door. Ranger unscrambled the feed, unlocked the door, and led me up to the Operations floor. While I was getting my purse, Ranger called the staff doctor.

"He was just getting ready to leave, but said that he would wait for us to come. He will be able to take us right away when we get there. I have let Ella know that we might be a few minutes late for dinner."

Ranger drove me in the Cayenne to the doctor's office. We got there just as the receptionist was leaving for the day. She held the door for us as I limped through.

The doctor met us at the waiting room, leading us back to the examining room and asking me to lie on my stomach on the examining table. He took off the bandage, then washed out the bite with antiseptic wash. "I am going to put a couple of sutures in this", he said. "The bite is quite deep and I think it would heal better if there were sutures in it. I am also going to give you a shot of antibiotics to help with the infection." He left to get the suture kit and the shot.

"How are you doing, Babe?"

I sighed. "This wasn't the way I wanted to spend my evening, but it is what it is. I'm glad that Dr. Mendez is looking after it. I just hope that it feels better tomorrow. I need to go out and capture those skips before Vinnie brings in the C team."

"The C team?"

"Yeah. You're the A team, I'm the B team, and Joyce is the C team. I labelled her as the C team because she has only been successful once in bringing in a skip, and I helped her with the capture. Not because of what the letter 'C' stands for, although that would describe Joyce as well. Vinnie is degrading his standards."

"You have already run the research for each of the skips. Why don't you do the analysis tonight and tomorrow, and I will send a team out to do the captures tomorrow and the day after? With sutures in your leg, you are not going to be running anywhere over the next couple of days, and it would be hard for you to do the capturing with only you and no backup anyway. If your leg feels up to it, you can go out to do the captures with the Rangeman team or, if you would prefer to rest, you can let them do the captures on their own. You can let Vinnie know this evening, so he knows not to call in Joyce."

"You don't mind?"

"No, in fact you would be doing me a favour. I am training some new recruits right now. I would be able to send out a couple of experienced staff members, whether that is you with another Rangeman employee or two other experienced Rangeman employees, with a new recruit and we would be able to use the captures as training opportunities."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Armed with antibiotic cream and instructions to return in a week to get the sutures taken out, I texted Vinnie from the car as we returned to Rangeman. _"I got bitten by a dog today. The bite is infected and has now been stitched up. I am going to be out of commission for the next couple of days. I brought two of your nine skips in today. I have done the research on each of the remaining skips already and will be doing the analysis tonight. Ranger is pulling a team off patrol to pick up the skips for you. Don't worry. We'll get them."_

I sent another text to Lula. _"The dog bite got infected. Ranger is just driving me back from the doctor who cleaned it up and sutured it. Ranger is going to provide a team to capture the skips over the next couple of days. No Joyce. Please text me with any details of any new files for me to research and pass along to Rangeman."_

By the time we got back to Rangeman, I had received a text from Lula. _"Three new files. Will send you the details tomorrow. Sorry to hear about your leg. Take care of yourself."_ I did not hear from Vinnie. I thought he was probably too busy dancing his happy dance. Rangeman staff are remarkably more effective bounty hunters than Lula and I are. There was a reason I called them the A team.

"I can't believe this. Lula said there are three more files waiting at the office for me."

"It's feast or famine, Babe."

"I could do with a little famine right now."

"So could Vinnie. He isn't making much money with having to pay you all those ten percents." He keyed us into the underground and parked his car in his dedicated spot. Then, helping me out of the car, he led me upstairs to his apartment.

We finished dinner and put away the uneaten food in the refrigerator and the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. "Why don't you work up here in the office? I have some reading to get done, so you can use the desk if you like. I will go down to your office for you to retrieve your research on each of your files."

My phone pinged while Ranger was down picking up my files. It was a text from my mother. _"Did not hear any gossip about you being in the hospital. You escaped under the radar. How is your leg?"_

Instead of writing back to my mother, I called her. "Hi, Mom."

"How is your leg?"

"It's okay. There were a couple of car crashes that came into the hospital just before I got there, so I didn't stick around for my leg. Ranger took me to the staff doctor this evening, and the doctor sutured it and treated it to ward off any infection. It hurts but I'll live. What's new around there?"

"Vivian Slater, I don't think you know her, was found dead on her kitchen floor today. She lives just a couple of streets over."

"I was the one that found her, Mom. She was alive when I found her, and she was alive when she got to the hospital. Has she died since?"

"You found her! I heard that she was dead when she was found, but if you are saying that she wasn't, then…"

"No, she was definitely still alive. The paramedics thought she had a heart attack. They said that, if I had been even half an hour later, she probably would have been dead when I got there. It was her dog that bit me."

"That mutt is a terrible animal. You should have shot it. All the neighbours would have thanked you for it."

"Mom!"

"Well, it's true. The dog is yappy and constantly tries to bite people. You never want to go near that dog when it is out on walks. Vivian tells us that her dog is misunderstood. Misunderstood, my foot! Misguided, maybe. Misbehaved, definitely. Misunderstood, never. It is hard to misunderstand a dog that is trying to bite you. Did you just get the one bite?"

"I got one deep one, the one that required stitches. I got a few other little nips, but they didn't break the skin."

"You got lucky. Beverly Channing's daughter got bitten by that dog, and she'll likely require plastic surgery when she is older. She got bitten right below her eye. She's terrified of dogs now."

"I don't blame her. How is everyone? How are Val and her family?"

"They are good. Val finally announced that she is pregnant again. She's three months along. She's still feeling sick, but she says the morning sickness is getting better."

"Five kids. Wow. All the power to her. I couldn't do it."

"You could if you wanted to. You'd be a good mother."

"That's the thing, though, Mom. I don't want to. I like my life the way it is and I don't want to change it for anything."

"You have nothing. You have no boyfriend. No children. A job where you find dead people and get bitten by dogs. No prospects for the future."

"I have a hamster. I have friends and family. I have a job that I enjoy and, now that I am working part-time for Ranger, I have some financial stability and am even saving money. I am happy. Is Val happy? Because I certainly would not be happy with five rug rats running around my feet. I would be the most depressed mother you could ever imagine. I don't think I would be able to take all that noise and confusion. I can barely take it when Val, Albert and the kids come over to visit, and that is when I know I get to go home at the end of the night."

"It does get to be a little much, doesn't it?" My mom laughed. "Val seems to be happy though."

"Face it, Mom. I'm not a minivan-driving, carpooling, school-volunteering sort of woman. I would not be happy living my life that way. I am a much better aunt." Ranger came into the room with my files and put them on the desk. "Thank you", I whispered to him.

"Is someone there with you?" asked my mom.

"I'm at Ranger's. He just went down to my office and brought up some files for me so that I wouldn't have to walk too far."

"That was nice of him. Are you together with Ranger now?"

"We are good friends and we spend a lot of time together. That does not mean that we are boyfriend and girlfriend", I said. And it was true. We have spent a lot of time together, and had three spectacular dates. But we only had three, and three dates do not make a relationship, even though it felt at times as though we were in a relationship. "I have to go, Mom. I have a tonne of work to do for Vinnie this evening. I have to catch up after missing time today to look after my leg." I said good-bye and hung up.

"Sounds like you were delving into the relationship discussion with your mother", said Ranger.

"She always wants me to settle down and have children. She doesn't seem to understand that I am happy the way I am. I don't need another person to make me happy, and I definitely don't need children to make me happy."

"With the work I do for the government, I don't think I could even have more children. It wouldn't be safe." A couple of weeks ago, Ranger told me a secret. He told me of some covert work he was doing in the War on Drugs on behalf of the American government. This work endangers him and everyone closely associated with him and is one of the reasons he lives in a separate city from his daughter. A long time ago he was married just long enough to give his daughter his last name. His ex-wife has now remarried and his daughter, Julie, lives in Miami with her mother and stepfather. A couple of years ago Julie was kidnapped by someone trying to steal Ranger's identity. It was a scary time for everyone and has resulted in Ranger pulling back even more from his daughter.

By knowing him, Ranger feels that my life is also endangered. For Ranger's comfort, I am now wearing a tracking watch at all times so that Ranger can find me wherever I am. While this makes Ranger feel more secure, I abhor the increased level of monitoring. I find it restrictive. As a testament to how much I like him – maybe even love him – I have not yet run screaming from the building.

I opened up my files and started reading, jotting notes down as I went and as I created capture plans for each of the skips. I got five skips in when Ranger came back into the office. "It's time for bed, Babe. It's after midnight. You have enough there to get the Rangeman team started, and you can finish the remainder of the cases tomorrow."

I stopped and stretched. "I didn't realize it was that late. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you up."

"If it was a problem I would have come through earlier. You're staying the night, aren't you?"

"If that is all right."

"It's always all right for you to stay the night. As I have told you before, my bed is always open to you. Tell me about the skips that you've picked out for the Rangeman team to capture tomorrow."

"I've prepared capture plans for five of the seven skips. One of the skips I especially want you to capture. Nolan Nyetta. He has AIDS. There is a myth out there that one can rid themselves of a STI by having intercourse with a virgin. He has raped three little girls in an effort to rid himself of the disease. He seems to be all over the place, not shopping in any one particular location, banking in any one particular branch or attending any entertainments regularly. We can try getting him at home and, if we cannot get him there, we can try at his doctor's office. He should be going for regular appointments. I was thinking that we could focus on some of the easier skips in the morning, then focus on Nyetta in the afternoon. Make sure that all staff are aware that he has AIDS to ensure that he doesn't bite anyone or anything like that."

* * *

Ranger kissed me awake at eight the next morning. "You were so tired you did not even wake when I got up for a workout this morning."

"It was a late night." I sat up, pried my eyes open and gratefully accepted a coffee. "Did you get up at five again?"

"Yes."

"How come we can go to bed at the same time, but you can get up after four hours of sleep and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and I am barely functioning after seven?"

"One of life's mysteries, I guess."

"Hunh. Time for a shower now, or breakfast now?"

"Sorry, but I was trying to let you sleep as late as I could. Ella just brought up breakfast."

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "I'm good. I can do this."

Ranger tucked some hair behind my ear. "How is your leg?"

"Sore."

"It was lucky that the doctor said you could get the bite wet. I won't have to tape a plastic bag over it so that you can shower. But I still want to take a look at it after breakfast to see if the redness has gone down."

Ranger helped me out of bed and held my coffee while I put on Ranger's housecoat. I hobbled through to the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar while Ranger doled out breakfast. Ella had made a good one, French toast with apple cinnamon topping. I enjoyed every mouthful.

"What are you planning on doing today? Are you doing research all day and sending out the Rangeman team, or are you going to go out with the team and do the captures yourself?"

"I plan on finishing the research this morning and sending out the team by themselves, and then going out with the team this afternoon."

"Should you be resting your leg instead of going out?"

"I was planning on my leg feeling a whole lot better this afternoon."

Ranger laughed. "I'm glad to hear that you are thinking positively, but sometimes one's body has different ideas from what you planned. See how you feel before you decide what you're going to do."

"What do you have planned for the day?"

"I'm around the office today. I'm working on that new secret training program that Tank and I were working on over the weekend, and I'm devising a security system for a new personal client that we got signed up yesterday. Using your cases, Calvin and Hal are going to be training Logan this morning. Eduardo is going to be training Luke this afternoon. If you go out with him, you can also train Luke at the same time. If you choose to not go out with them, I will send Miguel to help train Luke."

"Thanks. I should be good to go."

"Decide later. You don't have to decide until eleven o'clock when the shift changes and the patrol guys come in to handle monitoring. Although our new recruits will not actually be doing monitoring, I require all patrol staff to know how to do the job in case they are needed. In a pinch, I can do without patrol staff but I absolutely cannot do without monitoring staff."

I finished my breakfast and, on Ranger's request, showed him the bite. "It is looking better, Babe. It is not so red and hot anymore. The antibiotic shot seems to have cleared up the infection. You should put some more antibiotic cream and a gauze bandage on it this morning. Do you need help?"

"No, I'm good, thanks."

* * *

I met with Calvin, Hal and Logan in the break room grabbing a coffee. "Hey, Steph. We heard we are finding your skips this morning. How is your leg?"

"Sore, but I'll live."

"I heard the dog did a good job. I would have shot the mutt", said Calvin.

"That's what my mother said."

"You can't shoot a dog!" said Hal.

"And that's what I said", I said with a smile. "It is so rare to hear my mother advise me to shoot something, it took me by surprise." Hal started to laugh. He had met my mother several times in the past when he was providing protection to me. He knew of my mother's hatred of guns and even greater hatred of me using them.

"I can see why it took you by surprise, Steph. She must really hate that dog."

"Apparently I'm not the only person the dog has bitten. He bit a little girl not that long ago, and she's going to require plastic surgery to recover."

"Who do we have up for today? Let's get this show on the road. I am ready to go out and capture bad guys", said Logan enthusiastically. He had grabbed his coffee and looked ready to run down to the car and take off after the first skip.

"Slow down, cowboy. I've prepared files for five of the outstanding skips. Vinnie has two more that I am creating capture plans for this morning, and Lula has texted me the info on three more. I also have a body receipt to take into the bonds office when you go for payment." I handed the receipt over to Hal as I walked over to one of the tables and sat down. "I think the first person you should go after is Marianne Brown. She stole credit card information and used it for online shopping. She has been fired from her job as a cashier at a clothing store as a result. I have not been able to identify a specific time when she might be home. Her internet usage is all over the map, but instinct is saying that the earlier you go the more likely you will find her there. Alternatively, she purchases a coffee from Starbucks every morning at some point between ten and twelve. You can always stake out the coffee shop in an effort to capture her. Since she is a medium bond, she will be a good one to catch." I handed the file to Hal.

"Don't you have any higher bonds to capture?" asked Logan, disappointed.

"Yes, one, but it is going to require a stakeout and more research, so it would be better to clean up the remaining cases first."

"Okay, let's go", said Logan.

"I have other files prepared for you, but Marianne would be the best person for you to start with."

"All right. We will check in with you when we either have caught her or need a change in scenery", said Hal.

* * *

Two hours later I was finished creating capture plans for each of the remaining skips, including the three new ones from Vinnie. I sent a text to Hal. _"How is it going?''_ I got the response _"Skip was not at house. Have been drinking coffee at Starbucks for the last hour and a half. Am starting to float. Logan is antsy. Grasshoppers."_

I reviewed the files, and decided that it would be better to follow up on the Marianne file this afternoon by simply knocking on her house door and, if she was not home, to try to capture someone else and leave her for the next morning.

I looked over the other files and decided that Jonathan Jones, the perjurer, would be the best person to start with in capturing skips this afternoon. I had his work address and would be able to take him there. I usually prefer to take them in their home as it is less embarrassing for them, but face it. Since he had lied in a rape case and got his friend's charges dropped as a result of his lies, I had no sympathy for him. Luckily, his friend was re-arrested when the perjury became known.

Ranger popped his head into my office. "Do you have time for lunch?"

"I do." I walked down to the break room to grab some lunch and carried a container of minestrone soup and a chicken and lettuce sandwich back to Ranger's office.

"How is your leg?"

"Sore, but liveable. Much better than it was yesterday." I crumbled soda crackers into the soup and started to eat.

"Have you decided whether you are going to go out skip chasing this afternoon?"

"I think I'm going to go out. I have a number of Rangeman files to research, but I was planning on doing them after dinner and going out skip chasing this afternoon. I have already let Eduardo know. He is doing regular patrol until one with Luke, and will swing by to pick me up then. We are going to start with the perjurer. Hal, Calvin and Logan did not have any success capturing Marianne Browne this morning, so we will try to pick her up as well. I would be happy if we could capture two skips today, even if Vinnie seems to be producing them faster than I can catch them."

"I know you want to be there for the takedown, but remember that you don't need to be there. The Rangeman staff are good at what they do. You could do the research on the Rangeman files this afternoon and take the evening off. It wasn't that many days ago you fell asleep standing up." And it was true. I had been working so many hours lately that I have been getting run down. About five days ago I was so tired I fell asleep at my desk and, when Ranger tried to guide me upstairs, I fell asleep again leaning into him in the elevator. He ended up having to carry me to bed.

"I know. But I want to be there. The guy lied so that his friend wouldn't be charged with rape! I need to be on that takedown."

"Can the guys capture anyone else instead?"

"Probably. I could send them out after Shane O'Shaunessy. He tried to rob a convenience store. The store was too busy when he showed up, so he filled out a job application while he waited for an opportunity to rob the store."

"Don't tell me he used his real name on the job application."

"Yes, he did. And the job application mixed with the video surveillance tape got him arrested. He would be a good one to get off the streets just for his pure stupidity."

"He probably just forgot his court date."

"Possibly. Either way, it would be another one to cross off Vinnie's list. The thing is, I would really like to be there for the takedowns. I am okay on sleep. I slept seven hours last night. I should be good to do research tonight."

"Are you staying here tonight?"

"I need to get home to look after Rex, but thank you anyway." Rex is my attack hamster.

"Are you going to stay for dinner?"

"Don't plan on me being here. If I am, I will grab something from the break room and eat while I am working. If we can't get Marianne this afternoon, I will try to get her this evening before I work on the Rangeman files. Vinnie needs her brought in." My phone pinged. "Great. Lula says that two more files have come in for me."

"Leave the Rangeman files and have dinner with me. After dinner, I will help you do skip chasing. This is getting ridiculous. Vinnie has overextended himself, and I doubt any of his felons have come in for their court dates in the last two weeks. He must be beside himself."

"Judging by the number of texts I am getting from him, I think he is." I finished up the last of my soup and started on my sandwich. "Thank you for the offer of backup this evening. I need to clean up the workload fast. The files for Rangeman are piling up. I'll send a text to Eduardo and Miguel letting them know that they are going out with Luke this afternoon, and I will hang back until this evening to go skip chasing with you." I wrote a text to Eduardo and Miguel. _"Hi, guys. Change in plans. You are on your own for skip chasing this afternoon. I am going to try to get caught up on researching. Vinnie has more files for me, and there is a stack of Rangeman files for me to research. Ranger and I are going skip chasing this evening. Come on into the office and I will hand you some files for you to work on."_ I got texts from each of them saying that they would be in the office in about ten minutes.

I finished my sandwich and as I stood Ranger asked to see the dog bite. I stood with my back to him and lifted my leg so that my foot was on his chair behind me. He gently lifted the tape of the bandage and looked at the bite. "It looks good, Babe. I think you could take off the bandage and let the air at it to heal it now. Just put a bandage on it tonight when you spread some more of the antibiotic cream on."

Eduardo came to Ranger's door as I was putting my foot back down again. "Hey, chica, you have some files for us to chase?" Luke stood behind Eduardo and was staring at my dog bite. He looked a little green.

"I do. Come on down to my office and I will hand them over." I threw out my garbage. "I don't think I have time to train today, Ranger. I am too snowed under."

"We can still do half an hour on the range, although we can skip the gym workout." Just about when I was going to argue, Ranger said "it's important, Babe. Create capture plans for Vinnie's files, then work on Rangeman files to fill in the time before five o'clock At five we can work in the range for half an hour, then have dinner before going out this evening. It is important to practice regularly on the range. You are doing so well, and it would be a shame to lose the momentum."

There really wasn't anything I could say to that, so I led Eduardo and Luke down to my office, meeting Miguel on the way. "I heard you got bitten by a dog, chica", he said.

"Yeah, one of those little yappy dogs with sharp little teeth. I felt like an idiot for needing stitches. The bite was almost as big as the dog was."

"Hal told me that it got infected as well?"

"Yup. I had to go to the doctor's last night and have it cleaned out and stitched up. The stitches are going to be in for a week."

"I'm glad you're taking care of it. We're pleased to do your skip chasing for you while you're down and out. Who do you want us to start with?"

"I want you to go after two people this afternoon. Hal, Calvin and Logan were on a stakeout for Marianne Browne this morning, but they couldn't get eyes on her. I would like you to spot check her house. She is currently unemployed, so she should be around somewhere. I would also like you to go after Shane O'Shaunessy. He is also unemployed. I have the particulars of some pick-up locations with high potential to be good listed in the front of each of the two files. I think that will probably fill your time until you come off shift in two hours but, if things go relatively smoothly, could you pick up the Right to Apprehend papers from Lula at the office so that I can add them to the research for the three new cases that Vinnie sent me this morning?"

"Sure thing." Eduardo took the files from me and looked through my notes. "Let's start with Marianne Browne's house, then go after O'Shaunessy. See you later, chica."

I thanked the guys and then, looking at the pile of files in my in-basket, I headed down to the break room for some liquid energy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"How much work did you get done this afternoon?" asked Ranger over dinner.

"I completed the research on Vinnie's files and got two of Sales requests completed as well. I am partway through a third Sales request, and have five more to go after I finish this one. I suspect that you are going to have more for me to do with the installation of your new client as well, am I right?"

"I will, but I won't be ready for you to do that work for another couple of days. I am still getting the names for us to research from our client."

"Good. I'm glad I have a bit of time until I need to start that file."

"You do. Did Eduardo, Miguel and Jake have any success this afternoon?"

"No. They brought in the apprehension papers from Lula though, so there was some progress made. However, they were unable to pick up any of the skips. Where did you get Jake from?"

"He was one of our new hires that we thought would make a good security personnel. Why?"

"Eduardo and Miguel said that he was grossed out by the stitches on the back of my leg. I thought he looked a little green when he saw them."

Ranger laughed. "I noticed that as well. He will have to toughen up if he is going to make it at Rangeman. The number of knifings, shootings and beatings that can be a by-product of doing security can be high. You won't be the only person he'll see with stitches in his career here. Most of the time the job is boring. It is the rest of the time that injuries can occur."

"Hope he is better with it when it's his partner that's hurt and needs help."

"I'll keep my eye on him. Who are we going after tonight?"

"We are going to try for Marianne Browne first. That's the skip we have been trying for all day. If we do a couple of spot checks on her this evening and she still isn't there, I am going to assume that she's out of town and will leave her alone for a couple of days. After hopefully capturing Marianne, I would also like to go after the AIDS patient. I am worried that, with him being a serial rapist, he is continuing to rape little children while he's avoiding jail. I would like to capture him sooner rather than later."

"Let's try to capture him tonight. There are more reasons than simply missing his court date that make it important to capture him."

"That's what I was thinking. Start with Marianne and then capture Nolan Nyetta." I stood up and cleared the table, Ranger putting the remaining vegetable lasagne, salad and dressings back in the fridge and me putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher.

"What did Marianne Browne do again?" asked Ranger.

"She is the skip who was taking pictures of people's credit cards and their security numbers, and using the information to shop online. She spent thousands of dollars and was only caught when a police officer working in the fraud division was off duty and happened to be shopping in the store that Marianne was working in. He caught her taking the pictures and demanded that he be allowed to look at the woman's phone. When he said that he was going to call the police if he did not get a chance to see her phone, she relented. He found a number of pictures of credit cards and numbers on the phone. He arrested her and held her for questioning while he researched the credit cards. Several of the cards had been maxed without the knowledge of the cardholder, and several more of the cards had been maxed previously and the cardholder did not know anything about it until they received their statement, at which point it was too late to report the theft. The cardholders were required to pay the bill even though the card had technically been stolen."

"So this was a smart thief who just happened to steal from the wrong person."

"Looks like it."

* * *

Ranger parked the car a couple of houses down the street from the Browne residence. I checked the file. She was divorced and lived with her parents. She had two young children and should be home looking after them.

Ranger and I got out of the car. Ranger put on his utility belt. I did not. I moved my cuffs up to the back pocket of my shorts. I did not need pepper spray, a gun or a stun gun. I had a Ranger instead.

Ranger and I walked up to the house and knocked on the front door. There was no answer but we could hear squeals from children upstairs. We rang the doorbell again and waited. There was no answer. After several more bell ringings, Marianne answered the door with a child wrapped in a towel in her arms. "What is it?" she asked, irritated. "You could have wakened the baby with your incessant ringing."

"I am sorry to bother you, but I am Stephanie Plum and this is Ranger Manoso, and we are here representing your bonding agent. You missed your court date and we have come to take you into court to reschedule."

"I can't go right now. I am putting the children to bed."

"I understand, but you need to get someone here to look after the children while we take you in. Perhaps your parents?"

"My parents are in Quebec on a holiday. They can't look after the children."

"Then, I am sorry, but you have to find someone else to look after the children. If you cannot, we can call in Child Protective Services to look after them."

"You don't need to call in Child Services. I will find someone. Just give me a few minutes to phone around to try to set up babysitting."

Ranger and I followed Marianne into the house as she grabbed the phone and her phone book. On the sixth call, she found someone who was available to look after the children. "My brother's going to come. How long do you think he'll need to be here?" asked Marianne.

"I can't answer that. I don't know as I haven't been involved in that end of the process before." I didn't want to tell her that she was likely going to be held at the station until the following day. It was after hours and the courts were closed for the night.

We waited about half an hour for her brother to show up. "I hope she won't be long. I left dinner warming in the oven for when I get home", he said.

"I do not know how long Marianne is going to be. My job is just to bring people in and I am not involved in the rebonding process. Do you have anyone you can call to get them to turn your oven off?" I asked.

"I can call my neighbour."

"Good. I would hate to think you caused a fire if you have to stay for a bit."

"How long is a bit? I have an episode of Kustom Kars to watch, and my parents don't get the Speed channel."

"I really can't say how long Marianne will need to be there. As I said, I'm not involved in that end of the bonding process. But I know that Marianne appreciates you coming to look after the children. If it had been left up to us, we would have had to call Child Protective Services to look after them." I went up to Marianne and took out my cuffs. "I am sorry, but it is protocol to take all skips into the station in cuffs. We are not going to shackle you, however. I do not think that you are going to try to escape." I didn't want to cuff her. My instinct says that she was not going to try to escape. However, I was with Ranger and thought that it would be better to follow protocol. I hate looking stupid and screwing up in front of him.

Ranger went down to pick up the car and drive it into the driveway. I cuffed her behind her back and walked her to the front door to wait for Ranger. Marianne started to cry and her brother got upset. "Is this really necessary?" he asked. "Stop being mean to my sister." He went into the kitchen and came back with a broom. "Uncuff her and let her go." He raised the broom into the air and smacked it down on my head. The smack hurt, and the dust dislocated from the broom made me sneeze. I pushed the bawling Marianne out of the house, chased by her brother and his broom as he whacked me across my back and shoulders. Ranger drove into the driveway, and I opened the rear door of the Cayenne. I helped Marianne into the car and put on her seatbelt.

Meanwhile, Ranger got out of the car and captured the broom handle as Marianne's brother tried to bring it down on my head again. "What you are doing is assault and my partner is within her rights to charge you. Your family does not need another person facing jail time. It would not be good for the children and it would not be good for your parents." He checked to make sure I was getting in the car. "I'm going to give you your broom back and you're going to put it back in the house. As long as you do that, we are going to forget about the assault. If you continue to attack either of us, we will charge you. Do you understand?"

"She put my sister in cuffs!"

"Yes, and if it was up to me I would have shackled her as well. However, because this is Stephanie's capture I am letting her call the shots and she has requested no shackles."

"You are treating her like a criminal!"

"According to her file, that is why she is supposed to go to court. She was caught stealing."

"It was online stealing. That doesn't count."

"According to the Criminal Code, it does. Now, the sooner we get her into the precinct, the sooner she will be able to come home." Ranger got into the car and started it up.

"Do either of you have children? Can you not let me go, so that I can look after my children?" begged Marianne.

"No", I said. "I don't have children and I can't let you go."

"If you had children, you would understand the need to look after those children. They'll be scared if they wake up in the middle of the night and I'm not there."

"You should have thought of that before you stole all those goods. Now they have a mother who is facing jail time and won't be there to look after them when they fall and skin their knees or need a hug in the middle of the night when they have a nightmare. Who are you going to have look after your children when you're in the slammer?"

"I'm hoping it doesn't come to that."

"That can be your Plan A. You need a Plan B in case you're put in jail."

Marianne started to wail.

A few minutes later Ranger arrived at the precinct. He parked in the short-term parking. Together we walked Marianne through to the docking area. Apologizing, I cuffed her to the bench and handed her a tissue. Her mascara was running down her face with her tears.

I got my paperwork filled out by the officer in charge, and joined Ranger at the door. "Not bad", he said.

"We still have a couple of hours to find Nyetta."

We got back in the Cayenne. "Did Marianne's brother hurt you at all?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if he gave me a bruise or two, but he didn't really hurt me."

* * *

Ranger and I walked up to Nyetta's apartment. He was on the fourth floor of a run-down building on the bad end of Stark Street in which the elevator was broken. By the time we got to the fourth floor, I was panting. Ranger was not breathing heavily in the slightest. "Cardio, Babe", he said as he stopped at the top to give me a chance to regain my breath. "This is why cardio is so important."

"Shut up", I wheezed out without heat. Ranger looked like he was thinking about smiling.

After I was breathing regularly again, we walked down to Nyetta's apartment and banged on the door. No one came to answer the knock. We banged a few more times, but no one came to the door. "What do you want to do, Babe?"

"I know we are on Stark and we are tempting fate by leaving your car on the street," Stark was known for its crime-ridden environment and shady residents. Any car parked on Stark is considered in bounds in the chop shop game. "But I would like to stake out the building and try to capture this guy tonight if we can."

"There is only the one main entrance and exit from the building. There is a secondary door that leads to the parking lot. Does your skip have a car?"

"No, he doesn't. His collateral was a whole lot of diamond and gold jewellery. Some beautiful pieces, actually. His collection does not match his level of income and so you have to wonder how much of it was stolen."

"It must be hard for Vinnie to screen for stolen goods." He paused. "Okay, so chances are most likely he will be entering and exiting from the main doors. I have parked within view of the building. Why don't we wait in the car in comfort and watch the building for him?"

* * *

Doing a stakeout with Ranger was a peaceful experience. There is no need for unnecessary talk, leaving me a lot of time to worry about all the work that was ahead of me. As I worried, I fidgeted.

"What's wrong, Babe?"

"How do you know something is wrong?" I asked.

"You're fidgeting so much you're wearing a hole in the seat. There is either something bothering you or you have to go to the bathroom."

"I don't have to go to the bathroom. I purposely didn't drink much water with dinner."

"So what's wrong?"

"I'm worrying about all the work that's outstanding. We captured Marianne tonight, which was great, but there are still nine other fugitives out there to catch. I have five or more files from Sales to research, and your file will be coming soon as well. There aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done. I have to figure out a method of capturing skips faster to try to get through this backlog that Vinnie has created."

"Do you have any thoughts on how to do that?"

"I keep thinking of the time the police force offered free coupons for a toy store if you brought in your unregistered guns. I wonder if we could do something like that? Offer something for free, mail the coupon to the skip's house and have them come in to pick up the free item. However, instead of giving them a free item we would cuff them and take them to jail. If we did it, it would require a lot of Rangeman manpower to pull it off."

"That's a good idea. What are you thinking of offering your skips?"

"That is the part that I am stuck on. The only thing I can see all the skips wanting is a bag of weed, and I think even the dumbest felons would be able to see through that. I was wondering about movie passes."

"Yeah, or a case of beer."

"Or a bottle of Jack."

"A bottle of Jack could be good. You could phrase it that it was a free promotion offered to select Trenton residents in an effort to test out a new blend."

"I think it could work. Most of the felons I have on my list don't seem very smart."

"Who do you have?"

I pulled the files out of my stuffed bag. "In addition to Nyetta, I have Shane O'Shaunessy, the felon who filled out a job application with his real name while he was waiting for the opportunity to rob a gas station. There is Lucas Cooper, a felon who cold called potential customers to find out if they wanted to buy some drugs. Unfortunately he called the wrong person and he was arrested when Lucas showed up to complete the transaction. Mila Madison showed up for her driving test drunk and was charged with a DUI. Vance Deville transported dynamite, which went off as he was transporting it. Apparently that's a crime. Jonathan Jones lied in court to try to protect his rapist friend. Those are the ones that have been outstanding for a couple of days. I got three more in today. The first, Crystal Zoli, is wanted for solicitation. The second, Aiden Multan, was charged with selling illegal substances. He was selling powdered iguana testicles, advertising it as a method of increasing men's virility. The last, Gianna Bermley, was charged with theft and child abandonment as she took a taxi to the convenience store that she was going to rob, left her one-year old in it with the meter running, and went into the convenience store to rob the place. She said she needed the money in order to be able to pay the taxi fare."

"You are right. It doesn't sound like there are any bright lights in there. You may be able to get a few of them through a Jack promotion."

"Are you in, then? Can I count on Rangeman support?"

"Yes. I can pull the patrol staff and divert them to captures for the day. When were you thinking of doing this?"

"I don't know. I'm still hatching the idea in my head as we speak. I'll have to figure out where to have the promotion offered. I can't have the fugitives come to the bonds office. They would figure it out. How about if we offer to come to the felon's house. We could phone them and say that we are offering the promotion to them and need them there to collect their bottle of Jack as they will need to sign for it. That is one option. Or, we could rent a storefront and capture the felons as they enter the storefront. The problem with that option is that we would have to put out a significant amount of money to rent the space for nine felons. It might not make sense when you take into account the economics of it."

"I like the idea where we go to the felon's home. What we could do would be have you call and set up an hour-long window for you to show up. Then, you could show up with a couple of Rangeman staff in tow. You could identify the felon and, as you are getting them to sign the paper for the bottle of Jack, you could cuff them. You could leave the felon and his or her apprehension papers with the Rangeman staff, and you could collect another two support staff and go on to the next felon's house. You could theoretically get through all nine felons in one day. I could give you seven support teams. Five patrol teams plus Tank and a new recruit for a sixth, and myself and a new recruit for the seventh. I know that I want to be in on the fun, and I know Tank will want to be involved as well. When are you thinking of doing it?"

"Soon. Vinnie needs the relief as soon as he can get it. When is Rangeman available?"

"Today is Thursday. How about we plan on doing it on Monday? That gives you time to set it all up."

"Sounds good to me." We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"You're still fidgeting. What's wrong now?"

"Now I have to go to the bathroom."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

After much discussion, Ranger drove me to my apartment for the night. Ranger wanted me to come back to his place. However, I had not been home in a couple of days and Rex needed to be fed and have his water changed.

"You can look after Rex and pack a bag to come back to my place. Even better, you can bring Rex with you."

"Ranger, we have been over this. I love spending time with you. However, we aren't in a relationship yet. We have been on three dates. They were three pretty spectacular dates, but they were only three dates. I have been living in your place almost exclusively over the past two months, but your place is not my place. I have no right to stay at your place. I still do stay there, but I feel kind of bad about it. It isn't right. You aren't my boyfriend."

"Do I have to ask you to go steady with me to have you bring Rex to my place? What do I have to do to get you to move in with me?" He drove into a parking spot in my apartment building and got out of the car.

I followed him out. "Be patient. We are new at this dating thing. We are experienced at being friends. We have been friends for a long time. We are getting experienced at the friends with benefits, but it really has only been a couple of months that we have been partaking regularly of the benefits. But this dating thing is new to us. Give it time and it may turn into something more." Up until two months ago I was dating Morelli. After a long on-again, off-again relationship, we broke up for what feels like the last time.

Ranger took my key from me and opened my apartment door. "Do you want it to turn into something more?"

"I think I do. But I also think it is too soon to tell for sure. There is a whole lot about you that I don't know. Lula calls you Mr. Mysterio, and it's true. You are still a mystery to me. Until you aren't such an enigma, I cannot truly consider anything more." I walked over to Rex's cage. He was running on his wheel and, when I walked in, he stopped running and stared at me for a minute. I changed his water and put some hamster crunchies in his dish. I also added a raisin and a couple of sunflower seeds to make up for the fact that I hadn't been home the day before to feed him. Rex darted over to the bounty and was able to stuff both the raisin and one of the sunflower seeds in his cheeks before scurrying over to his soup can hidey hole. That was his version of saying that it was nice to see me. Interaction with my hamster was over with.

Ranger dropped his gun belt on the counter, followed by his phone, wallet and keys. I looked at him. "This is an interesting conversation", he said. "I don't want to go home now. Besides, if I go home how were you going to get to Rangeman tomorrow? Your car is at the office."

"I could always ask my dad to drive me."

"Or I could just stay overnight and drive you there tomorrow."

I looked at him, a "you've got to be kidding" expression on my face.

He ignored me. "What do you want to know about me?" He walked through to the living room and sat down on one end of my couch. I sat down on the other and stretched out my legs. Ranger put my feet in his lap and started massaging them. "I am all yours. What would you like to know?"

I thought for a minute. "Everything!" I said with a smile. Ranger just looked at me, continuing to massage my feet. "I guess I will start with a hard one first. What do you want from me? Do you want a relationship? Do you want to stay at the 'friends with benefits'?"

"Like you I am still feeling my way on this. I know I like it when you are there with me. It does not have to be when we are at my place. I am equally comfortable being at your place. I just know that I don't sleep as well when you aren't beside me. The apartment feels empty when you aren't there. It feels like just a place, whereas when you are there it feels like a home. I miss you when I don't see you during the day and I worry about you when you aren't with me. Does that make it a relationship? I am starting to think it does.

"I find it a bit scary. For years now I have avoided relationships because of the danger my girlfriend would be in as a result of knowing me. Then, when I knew that I had tracking abilities to make me feel more comfortable, I avoided relationships because I knew the only relationship I wanted to be in was with you, and you were taken. The idea that I can actually have a relationship with you is somewhat new and I am excited by the possibility. I want to push it along, make it happen for me before someone else comes along and scoops you up from under my nose. Sharing about my life, my past, does not come easily to me. I will try to answer any questions that you may have, and I will try not to overwhelm you with my desire to lock you in a relationship. But I do not want to stay as friends with benefits. I want more."

"Okay."

"Okay? That's all?"

"That's all for now. These will be ongoing discussions that will take place over the rest of our lives but, for now? I'm tired, I'm sure you're tired, and we have a full day tomorrow. If I am going to be at all effective, I need some sleep. I've looked after Rex. Did you want to sleep here, at your place, or separate tonight? Because whatever we decide, I need to get to bed soon. I'm hitting my wall."

"It is easier for me to be at my apartment, but we are also here right now. I will leave it up to you. I would prefer not to be separate. We can sleep here now and go to bed within the next few minutes and sleep until seven tomorrow morning, or you can pack a bag, we can go back to my place and you can sleep until eight."

"No matter how attractive another hour in bed sounds about now, I would prefer to stay here tonight. It is better for Rex to have some human company once in a while. Besides, I am so tired I am not sure if I would make it to Rangeman before I fell asleep." I got up off the couch. "I put the shower bag you left the last time you stayed over in the bottom drawer in the vanity", I said as I walked towards the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I finished up in the bathroom and changed into a pair of shortie pyjamas, climbed into bed, and was asleep before Ranger made it into bed three minutes later.

* * *

The next morning I woke up to Ranger kissing me awake, rubbing his thumb tenderly against my cheekbone, a cup of coffee on the nightstand beside me. "Good morning", he said as he brushed my curls out of my face.

"It isn't morning already, is it?" I asked sleepily.

Ranger smiled. "Unfortunately, yes. I have made breakfast. It isn't to Ella's standards, but it used up some of your perishables in the house."

I got up and used the facilities, brushed my teeth and used mouthwash. I stumbled back to the bed and looked longingly at the sheets. "What did you make?" I asked as I sipped my coffee.

"Blueberry banana smoothies. I have bread ready to do down in the toaster, and peanut butter on the table for the toast. Are you ready for breakfast now?"

"Sounds good", I said, the coffee kickstarting my mind into gear. "Let me guess. You are hungry?"

"Always", his eyes growing dark with desire. He trailed his hand down below, and gave me a kiss that involved a lot of tongue. He pushed me back into the bed, following me down onto the sheets. I don't think he was hungry after all, as it was some time before we actually made it to the breakfast table.

* * *

"So, I was thinking that we could go out on another date once you are feeling more comfortable with your workload", Ranger said over some fabulous smoothies.

"That sounds wonderful."

"How about we schedule it for Monday, after we have captured each of the skips with your brilliant plan?"

"Sounds good. As much as I would like to go on another date with you, I want to get my head above water so that I can enjoy it. Right now I am drowning in work."

"I know you are. If there is anything I can do to help you with your workload, let me know."

"Did you contact the guys to let them know of our plan?"

"Not yet. I want to talk to Tank about it first. I did ask that a team do surveillance on Nyetta's apartment building though. I borrowed your scanner and emailed them a picture for their surveillance. We will need to get the apprehension papers to them this morning on our way into the office in case they are lucky enough to pick him up."

"Thank you. I would really like to get that guy. I worry about what he is doing while he is running free."

"Your worry is contagious. So do I." He paused. "What are you going to work on today?"

"I am going to tell Vinnie about our capture plan, and then do the groundwork to set up the captures. I need to contact each of the felons to arrange a time to pick them up. When I have finished that, I would like to clean up some of the Sales files." I received a text from Lula. "Lula says that she has two more files for me to chase. She is going to send me the particulars today. I will have to do those files for Vinnie as well. That makes eleven files for me to chase for Vinnie. I am glad that we have our plan. I would be debilitatingly overwhelmed if we didn't have our plan. These smoothies are good. How did you mix them up?"

"I found a hand blender in your cupboard", Ranger said, pointing to the mixer on the counter.

"Oh, is that what that is? Val got it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I thought it was a weird new sexual toy."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

I sent a text to Vinnie on the way to meet the guys staking out Nyetta. _"Don't panic about the outstanding files. I have a plan and, if the plan goes right, I will be able to pick up all of them on Monday. In the meantime, Rangeman staff are staking out Nyetta and I am doing the set up for my capture plan. I will come in later to provide details."_ I send a supplementary text to Lula. _"Have most excellent plan to capture fugitives. Will be in later to tell you about it. Bringing in receipt for Browne. Ranger and I caught her last night."_

Ranger drove up behind the Rangeman fleet vehicle and parked. We walked over to Calvin, Hal and Logan. Hal and Calvin were playing twenty questions. Logan was either sleeping or meditating. His eyes were closed and his breathing was at sub-human level. I suspect that he was sleeping as he did not open his eyes when we approached the vehicle. I looked at Ranger. He had his "not happy" look.

"Did you forget to tell Logan that it was inadvisable to sleep on the job?" asked Ranger in a quiet, deadly tone.

"We have woken him twice, but because he had a heavy night last night I don't think he is ready to wake up."

"Then I guess he should not have had a heavy night last night." Ranger quietly got in the back of the car next to Logan, leaned over until his mouth was beside Logan's ear, and yelled "hey". Logan's eyes slowly opened.

"What? Did I fall asleep again?" He shook his head in befuddlement, then noticed Ranger sitting beside him. "I'm sorry, sir. I just had the hottest night last night with this girl that I met in a bar, and I was up to all hours in the morning with her. You understand, don't you? Being in security is such a turn on for some women."

"What I understand is that this is your warning, and you are lucky because I don't give warnings very often. If you are scheduled to come to work the following day, I expect you to be able to work the following day. Not show up under the weather from drinking too much, or too tired to perform your duties. In this business, being tired could mean the difference between life and death, not only your own but your partner's as well. You are going to come back to the office with Stephanie and myself. You're absolutely no good to me here and, in fact, you're a liability if you're too tired to perform your job. You're going to take the rest of the day off without pay, and you're going to sleep off your hangover. Tomorrow you're scheduled to work again, and you're going to show up to work sober and ready to perform your duties. Get out of the car." Ranger got out of the car himself and, taking my apprehension papers out of my hand, passed them over to Hal. "If you see this guy, take him down. He has been raping little girls in a misguided effort to cure himself of AIDS. He needs to be stopped as soon as possible. This is going to be a 24/7 surveillance until we meet up with him or until we have another plan. If you haven't found him by the end of your shift, wait until replacement staff have come before you leave. We want to get this guy."

"Okay, boss", said Hal.

Ranger led the way back to the Cayenne, Logan meekly starting to get in the front passenger side. "In the back", bit out Ranger.

"I'm sorry. I just thought that, since I have longer legs than Stephanie, I would be sitting in the front."

"Stephanie will always be at my side. Now, get in the car." Ranger was furious, and it showed in his quiet and lethal voice. Logan for once shut up, and got in the car.

It was a quiet ten minutes driving to the Rangeman facility. As we neared the building, Ranger asked me "what are you going to do now? Are you going to set up the captures on Monday, or are you going into the bonds office first?"

"I will set up captures first as some of my skips may not be available for contacting later in the day."

"Lunch later?"

"I probably will be eating lunch at the bonds office, but thank you for the offer. I will be available for training, however, at four if you are open."

"That's a date." He sent me one of his half-smiles, then turned to key us into the underground parking. He drove to the area where the employees parked their cars, and asked Logan to point out his. Logan pointed out an old Hyundai, dark green and rust in colour. Ranger stopped behind the car. "This is your first and final warning. Do not ever show up to work again incapable of performing whatever is thrown at you during the day. You were lucky today that I was in a good mood. The next time you show up unable to work, you will be fired with just cause."

"Yes, sir."

Ranger waited until Logan got out of the car before driving over to the elevators and parking in his parking spot. He got out of the car and watched Logan drive out of the parking lot. He shook his head. "I am having such a hard time hiring staff lately. I am thinking of approaching the military to try to get a list of people who have recently left the service. I need people with the discipline that is ingrained during training. Tank and I don't have the time to train them ourselves."

We went upstairs and opened our offices, grabbed a coffee from the break room, and met Tank in his office. Ranger sat down in a chair in front of Tank's desk and said "Vinnie has an enormous list of skips to capture right now, with about eleven outstanding. We have had Rangeman teams helping Steph, but have had little success. Yesterday we had eight staff, including Stephanie, searching for skips and only found one. Steph has created an excellent plan to capture a large number of skips in one day. Babe?"

"We were thinking of offering a promotion to all the fugitives, where we tell them that they have to be at home to sign for receipt of a free bottle of Jack. Then, when we show up on Monday to 'give' the bottle of Jack to the felon, we catch them."

"I offered Rangeman to provide the muscle to do the captures. We could have a few teams available, each team meeting with Stephanie at their assigned houses. Stephanie could approach the house with a Rangeman team of two behind her. She can get the felon to sign their name and, as they are reaching for the bottle of Jack, she could slap some cuffs on them. The Rangeman team could take the felon away to the precinct while Stephanie shuts down the house for the felon. Then Stephanie could go to the next felon's house to meet up with another team to do another capture."

"That plan is brilliant, Steph. Efficient but effective", said Tank.

"I thought you would want to be in on the fun," said Ranger, "and I know I would like to be in on the fun as well. I want to schedule both you and me to work with our new recruits. I have some concerns about Logan. I found him sleeping on the job today. His excuse was that he found a willing partner at the bar last night and was too tired this morning to perform. I would like to work with him on Monday when you are doing the scheduling. Luke so far seems good, although a little squeamish. I thought he was going to pass out or hurl when he saw Stephanie's stitches. I thought you could work with him."

"Will do. Let me know as soon as you can about when you need support staff available, Steph."

"Thanks, Tank. I will get back to you by the end of the day." I left Ranger to talk to Tank about whatever Ranger talks to Tank about, and went to make my calls to the skips.

* * *

"Hello, is this Jonathan Jones?" I asked.

"Yes, it is."

"My name is Stephanie and I am a representative of the Jack Daniel's corporation. You have been selected to receive a free bottle of Jack's in a special promotion that we are currently offering to selected residents. We would like to come by on Monday to deliver the bottle. What time would you be available for us to show up?"

"Do I have to be here?"

"Yes, you do. Due to liquor laws, we will need to see your identification and get your signature before we hand over the free bottle of whiskey."

"What size of bottle will it be?"

"This is a special Jugs of Jack's promotion. It will be a full-sized forty-ounce jug."

"For forty ounces I can be here. I am working on Monday, but will be home by six. Could you show up around seven?"

"Yes. We have a number of residents to see, but I can pencil you in between seven and eight. Does that work for you?"

"Yes. I will see you then. What did you say your name was again?"

"Stephanie. I will bring the whiskey personally to your place. I will see you on Monday between seven and eight in the evening." I hung up, marked the appointment down on the timetable, and phoned Shane O'Shaunessy. I introduced myself and explained that I was calling from the Jack Daniel's company. "We are doing a promotion and would like to offer you a free bottle of whiskey. We will be in your area delivering the bottles on Monday. What time would be a good time to come by to give you the bottle?"

"What size of bottle is it?"

"It will be a forty-ounce jug."

"I will be here until noon. I start work at one, so I will need to leave here at noon to get to work in time. It's a new job, so I don't want to be late."

"I can be at your house around nine in the morning. How does that sound?" Shane agreed to be there, dressed and ready to receive his whiskey. I hung up the phone, marking the time down on the schedule.

I phoned Mila Madison next. She was not there, so I left a message saying that I would call back in an hour.

I phoned Nolan Nyetta but the number was out of service. I checked all his paperwork but was unable to find another number for him. I was thankful that Ranger had a team watching his building and could only hope that Nyetta was caught sooner rather than later the old fashioned way.

Next, I phoned Lucas Cooper. "I don't drink, but my old woman likes to drink Jack. You said on Monday? I am getting a new shipment of supplies for my business on Monday. My supplies are arriving just after noon, so if you could come in the morning that would be preferable."

"How about between ten and eleven?"

"Sounds perfect." I marked him down on the schedule.

I then phoned Vance Deville. "I don't like whiskey. I'm a beer and nuts sort of guy. I stay away from hard liquor."

"You could always accept the whiskey and give it to someone as a gift."

"Thank you, but I'm not interested." I started a different list, one where I was going to have to capture the skips using more traditional methods.

I phoned Crystal Zoli and woke her up. "I had a late night, doll. What can I do you for?"

I went through my spiel, offering her a free jug of Jack's. "I am happy to help out the Jack Daniel's corporation by accepting the free promotion. What do I have to do to get the bottle of Jack's?"

"It is actually a jug. You just have to be at your residence with identification. I will be bringing the bottle directly to your door. Does sometime between eleven and twelve work for you?"

"For a free jug of Jack's, I will make it work for me." I marked her down on the schedule.

I phoned Aiden Multan. I explained why I was calling and said that I would be in the area on Monday afternoon and Monday evening. I arranged to "drop off" the whiskey between one o'clock and two o'clock. When I spoke to Gianna Bermley, I suggested that we "drop off" the whiskey in the evening. I arranged for us to show up between eight and nine at night. I phoned Olivia Piper and found that she would be available for us to "drop off" the whiskey between two and three in the afternoon. The last skip, Alyssa Peyton, said that she did not drink but that her mother liked to drink and could her mother get the promotion? I explained that there must have been a mistake on my list. The promotion was for Alyssa Peyton and only for Alyssa Peyton. "There must have been a mix-up with the ages."

"People tell me that I look much older than my sixteen years. Maybe that was why I got targeted in the promotion."

"Possibly. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today anyway. I will cross your name off the list."

I went back and called Mila Madison again, this time having more luck. "I am running out of booze, so this is a good time to call. I will only have enough to last me the weekend. How big a bottle did you say that it was?"

"I didn't say, however, it is a forty ouncer. We are testing a new blend and want the opinions of Americans across the country."

"That should last me a couple of days. If I give twice as many opinions, can I have two bottles?"

"No, we are only giving out one bottle at a time."

"That's a shame. I'm in, and keep me on the list for future promotions as well."

"I will. May I pencil you in for between four and five in the afternoon?"

"Yes, I'll be here."

I hung up and reviewed my list.

Shane O'Shaunessy between nine and ten in the morning. Lucas Cooper between ten and eleven. Crystal Zoli between eleven and twelve. Aiden Multan between one o'clock and two o'clock. Olivia Piper between two and three in the afternoon. Mila Madison between four and five. Jonathan Jones between seven and eight. Gianna Bermley between eight and nine at night. That left Alyssa Peyton, Nolan Nyetta and Vance Deville to capture using the standard ways.

I photocopied the schedule with contact names and information as well as police mug shots and any other information that I thought was necessary for the team to know for the capture. Creating three packages, I put one each in a file folder labelled "Jugs of Jack's – Jack Daniel's Forty-Ouncer Giveaway Promotion". I left one on my desk and took the second file through to Tank. "Here is a file on each of the skips. I was able to arrange the 'drop off' of the whiskey with eight of them. The other three did not fall for the trick. One person doesn't drink; one person is too young to drink; and the third does not have a working phone number. I will have to get them the old-fashioned way."

"Good work, Steph. Thanks for the schedule. I will assign teams and will get back to you later in the day."

"Thanks. I am going into the bonds office for a little while to take in a couple of body receipts, but will be back to work on Sales files later on this afternoon."

I grabbed my purse and, shutting and locking my office door, I started out of the building. On the way, I dropped off the third file folder to Ranger. "The folder contains the schedule as well as mug shots, directions to residences, contact information, and whatever else I thought we might need to capture these guys. I have given a copy of this folder to Tank and kept a copy for myself. Tank said that he was going to pencil in people's names this afternoon to provide support to me."

"Were you able to schedule in all eleven skips?"

"No, but I was able to schedule in eight of them. The remaining three were unavailable because they were either too young for the promotion, not interested in getting free alcohol, or the number that I have for them is out of service. Unfortunately, the one that the number is out of service is for Nyetta. Do you still have a team on him?"

"Yes. Cal and Hal said that all was quiet there the last time I texted with them, and that was about twenty minutes ago."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

I arrived at the bonds office, parking in the back parking lot. Vinnie was in, which was good for a couple of reasons. I had to talk to him about what was happening on the upcoming Monday, and because he needed to write me a couple of cheques. I needed to pay Rangeman back for Ranger's assistance in Browne's capture.

I walked into the office with lunch for Lula, Vinnie and myself in my hands. I placed the large bucket of extra crispy on Connie's desk, with the large box of fries, some paper plates, some napkins, a handful of ketchup packets, and a six-pack of diet cokes. "Vinnie", I called out, "put your pecker back in your pants. Food's here." There was a scrambling in Vinnie's office and Vinnie came running, quickly zipping his pants up as he opened his office door.

"Oh. Lunch is here." Vinnie sounded disappointed.

"What did you think I said?"

"I thought you said Lou was here."

"Who's Lou?"

"Lou is my favourite pimp. He has the best girls in the business. He said he might bring something special out to me today. I'm waiting for his delivery."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"What are you doing here, Steph? You have lots of skips to catch. I am drowning in skips, and I suspect there will be another couple come in today for you to chase. I am getting an ulcer. Harry isn't happy." Harry the Hammer is the owner of the bonds office. He is a former interrogator for the mob. His name reflects his favourite interrogation tool rather than a skill in carpentry. Harry also happens to be Vinnie's father-in-law. There were a whole lot of reasons why it was not advisable to displease Harry.

"I have a plan, Vinnie. If it all goes according to plan, we will capture eight of those skips on Monday. The other three I will work on this weekend."

"How are you going to capture eight in one day?"

"With Rangeman's help." I outlined the plan for Vinnie and Lula. By the end of lunch both Vinnie and Lula had smiles spread from ear to ear. "What do you think?" I asked.

"It's brilliant", said Lula. "This could actually work."

Vinnie nodded his head in agreement. "Knowing this will make my weekly dinner at Harry's house more comfortable. He said he wanted to talk to me about the office's performance this weekend. He met with the accountant yesterday and he did not sound happy."

"I will let you know if I capture any of the other three this weekend as well", I said.

"Do you need help?" asked Lula.

"Thanks, but no. Rangeman has a team on surveillance for Nyetta and Alyssa Peyton is a sixteen-year old girl. I am going to ask Ranger to do the capture. She will be drooling so much over him she will gladly go wherever he suggests. As for Vance Deville, I am just going to try to pick him up the usual way at some point this weekend. He's on sick leave from his company as a result of the blast, and from what I understand he's not very mobile, so I should be able to find him around his house." I got up and put the lunch garbage in the trash bin. "I have a pile of work to do at Rangeman. Here are my body receipts. For Vivian Slater, it all goes to me. For Marianne Browne, sixty percent of the capture fee goes to Rangeman and the rest goes to me. If you give me their cheque, I will take it to them when I return to their offices this afternoon."

"Don't forget those other three. You still have to get those other three", said Vinnie.

* * *

Getting back to Rangeman, I popped my head into Ranger's office on the way down to my desk. "I have another favour to ask."

"Shoot."

"I have a teenaged girl, a sixteen-year old who needs to be picked up. I think it would ease matters if you were along."

"Why?"

"Because you're every girl's dream. I think she would be quite willing to follow you anywhere."

"Would you follow me anywhere?"

"I'm pleading the fifth out of self-defence", I said with a laugh. "Are you in for this evening?"

"I love to do anything with you. Sure, I'm in."

* * *

Four o'clock was a good time to break. I had just finished my fourth Sales file. Three more showed up in my in-box in the same time period. I felt like I was doing one step forward and two steps back, even though I was making slow progress overall. I picked up the completed files and stopped by Ranger's desk. He was on the phone, so I whispered to him that I was going down to Sales and would meet him in the range.

I grabbed a box of bullets from the storeroom and walked down the three flights of stairs to Sales. I walked in, saying "hi" to everyone and walking back to Emilio's desk to drop the files on it. "I just got three more requests this afternoon. I should be able to get to them this weekend."

"You don't have to work on the weekend, Steph. Monday is plenty soon enough."

"I am busy Monday, but thanks anyway."

"Tuesday is fine, as well", Emilio said with a smile.

"I will keep that in mind. Sleeping this weekend sounds really good, too. How are you doing? Do you have plans for the weekend?"

"I am painting the living room this weekend, and am having dinner with the in-laws on Sunday. A pretty boring weekend, but since I like painting, it will be a good weekend as well."

"Do you get along with your in-laws?"

"I do. They are nice people."

"That's good. I never got along with my ex-husband's family. It was a source of tension in our marriage."

"Is that why you broke up?"

"No, it was walking in on one of his many girlfriends doing the deed with him that caused the split. We are still in the record books as the most acrimonious divorce in Burg history."

"Ouch. I didn't know you lived in the Burg. I just moved there myself."

"Yup. Born and bred there. My family still lives in the house that I grew up in, and my sister has moved back into the Burg. I live just on the outskirts."

"I'm sorry. I thought you lived here."

I paused, struck by the knowledge that everyone in the building thought that I was living with Ranger. And I guess in many ways, I was. "No, I have my own apartment. I only live here when my life is in danger. I use the Rangeman facility as my safe house." I picked up the box of bullets and wished Emilio a good weekend, then left for the range.

Entering the range, I saw Hal as he was finishing a training session. I put on protective gear and left the observation area to enter the shooting range itself. "Just finishing your shift off with a little practice?" I asked.

"Yeah. I haven't been in a couple of days, so I wanted to get some shots in."

"Do you practice every day?"

"Usually, from quarter after three to a quarter to four. I get out just before you come down."

I looked at his target. "Tight grouping", I said.

"Thanks. I am not up to Ranger's usual, but I have definitely improved over the last year. And three years ago? I was useless. It is embarrassing to look back and review my targets."

"My skill level is about where yours was three years ago by the sound of it."

"Just keep practicing then. You'll get there." He picked up his box of bullets and, taking off his protection, left the range.

I cued up a circle target. Reminding myself of everything Ranger had taught me, I aimed and fired a clip into the target. I got many bulls-eyes, some of which were right dead in the centre.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ranger enter the range. Donning protection, he came onto the range proper and picked up a body target. He took out a picture and placed it face down on the ledge in front of me. Then he retrieved the circle target and replaced it with the body target. I gave him a dirty look. He ignored me. When the target was up he stapled a picture of Nolan Nyetta to the target's head. "Good grouping on the circle target. That was a good warm-up. We are now going to do head shots on Nyetta." I started hyperventilating. Ranger put his hand on my shoulder, giving me space to get control of myself. "Breathe, Babe. Remember what he is doing to all those little girls, and think about what you would do if he was sighting a gun on you."

I stepped back. "I can do this." I picked up my gun and shot seventeen shots into Nyetta's head. Most hit somewhere, although many of them hit the ear region and would have ticked him off rather than incapacitated him or killed him.

Ranger brought the target up and exchanged it for a clean target. "Again", he said. I shot another clip into the target. "Getting better. Try it again." I refilled the clip and shot another one in the same target. Ranger had me do that five more times before he pulled up the target. "You have shot just over one hundred bullets into this target. Notice that the paper is shredded on the head. That is because you hit the target so many times. You did well. I am going to send down a clean target and you can try another clip in the head, and then one in the chest. We will count how many shots you are able to get in the target at the end."

I was getting better on the shooting of the targets, but I was not so sure that I wanted to do the assessment at the end to see how accurate my shots were. I filled the clip with bullets while Ranger replaced the target. Then, I carefully sighted the target and shot a clip into the head. I refilled the clip and shot another seventeen bullets into the chest. I refilled my clip while Ranger pulled up the target. He took it over to the table and picked up a red marker. He circled each bullet hole and counted the shots. "You did really well, Babe. Out of the seventeen shots at the head you were able to get thirteen somewhere in the head, and six of them were on the black centre. Out of the seventeen shots you had at the chest, you were able to get fifteen of them somewhere in the chest, and ten of them were in the black centre. Your biggest problem is consistency. While ten were in the centre of the chest, the remaining five were spread out throughout the rest of the rings. And that is not including the two that sailed over the shoulder of the target. The only thing that is going to improve consistency is practice, and you are already seeing a difference based on the amount that you have been practicing. You could not have done this a month ago. I think you should keep that target for reference." He slung his arm over my shoulder and guided me out of the range. "Proud of you, Babe", he said as he kissed the side of my head. I murmured my thanks as he said "how did it go with Sales? Are you still having problems with them?" Two weeks ago I had a problem with a member of the Sales team. He became obsessed with me and was fired for sexual harassment. Just one week ago I discovered that the Sales staff had made available a pool of money for the first person who got me to agree to go out with them. I told Ranger, and he met with the staff and told them they had to buy pizza for the whole company with the money they had collected, and that they had to desist on bothering me. Sometimes it is a bitch being the only single female in a company where ninety-nine percent of the staff are male.

"No. They seem to have relaxed quite a bit. I haven't had a problem since the pizza party."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Ranger and I went up to his apartment after a light workout where he stepped me through the self-defence moves in slow motion. Ella had already come with our dinner, and the savory aroma of the turkey divan casserole keeping warm in the warming drawer permeated the apartment. Ranger and I washed our hands. Ranger got out the casserole from the oven and poured water for each of us; I got out the salad and dressings, and serving utensils, cutlery and plates. We had eaten together so many times we were like a well-oiled machine, dancing around the kitchen and each other as we served up our meal.

"Tell me about the teenager we're going after tonight", said Ranger.

"Alyssa Peyton. She is sixteen and made a habit of trespassing on the property of a crotchety old man. She regularly hid in his garden shed and smoked weed. She didn't always leave the shed in a neat and tidy condition, often leaving used condoms behind from her various sexual exploits. The crotchety old man left her a note warning her that she would regret it if she continued to trespass on his property. She ignored the note and vandalized his shed in retaliation, dumping old paint and motor oil all over the ground. The old man got mad and spoke to her parents, who said that their daughter was a darling angel who would never do anything wrong. So the old man set an animal trap. He adjusted it so that she would be injured but would not lose her leg, and set it up outside the shed. When she came, in the dark, she stepped on the trap and it shut around her ankle. It shattered her ankle bone and she needed surgery. Her ankle will still be in a cast, so she won't be a runner."

"Wow. What happened to the old man?"

"I don't know. It doesn't say on the police report."

"If she isn't a runner, why do you need my help?"

"I'm not sure if I do. Although I do think it will go more smoothly with you there, the main reason I asked for help is just because I want to spend time with you." I finished the last of my dinner and pushed my dirty plate away with a sigh of pleasure.

Ranger's eyes darkened as he grabbed hold of my hand and raised it to his lips, kissing my knuckles and then, turning my hand over, kissing the palm of my hand. "I like spending time with you as well." He pulled me over to his seat, down onto his lap and into a kiss. When our tongues touched I moaned and started frantically reassessing whether I had to pick up Peyton that evening. Ranger's hand drifted down and… oh, boy. Peyton, who?

* * *

"So, before you rudely diverted my attention", said Ranger with a smile, "you were saying that we have to pick up Alyssa Peyton. Do you still want to go?"

"I diverted your attention? I was solely focused on picking up Peyton until you distracted me."

"But it was the best sort of distraction imaginable."

"Yes, it was. I can't deny it. And I am so relaxed right now the last thing I want to do is go after a skip."

"Why don't we go after your skips, then come back here for round two?" He leaned down and kissed me deeply, making me think longingly of forgetting about the skips entirely and heading directly for round two.

"That works for me." Ranger hauled me off the bed and I walked around the apartment, gathering up clothes that I had frantically discarded as I had made my way into the bedroom. Ranger picked up his clothes and dressed again himself.

"Can we do one of your other skips as well? Don't you have three altogether that did not sign up for the free alcohol scam?"

"Yes. There was Alyssa Peyton, who we are going after tonight, Nolan Nyetta who Rangeman has been staking out since yesterday and we have not had eyes on him, and Vance Deville. If we could also pick up Vance Deville, that would be great. He also will not be a runner. It is illegal to have explosives go off when you are transporting them, and Vance's explosives went off. He was injured and it obviously was an accident, but he was charged anyway. He still needs to come into the precinct to rebook. As for Nyetta, I am going to look at his file further this weekend and see if I can shake something loose for ideas on where to look for him."

"That sounds good. Let me know if you want a second set of eyes reviewing the file." Ranger finished getting dressed and put his gun back in his holster. "What do you have scheduled for this weekend?"

"I have several files for Sales to do, and I noticed that you are ready for me to research that new account. I have to find Nyetta in addition to the other two that we are going to try to do tonight, I need to see my parents, and I have to do laundry. I probably will take my laundry to my parents to do while I visit with them. I need to clean out Rex's cage and I should clean my apartment. Lots of little things. What about you?"

"I am working on the new file, reviewing the performance of the new recruits, working on the training program with Tank and doing some bookkeeping and other administrative stuff. Do you want to bring your laundry here and have Ella do it?"

"No, thanks. That's not fair to Ella. She has enough to do without doing my laundry as well. I would take it to the laundromat, but I have been a little nervous about going to the laundromat after I was drugged a few weeks ago." Someone that I was researching for Rangeman took exception to the information I found out. He drugged me and tried to kidnap me while I was at the laundromat. It was only the fact that Ranger showed up that foiled the kidnapping. "I know that it's silly to be anxious about it."

"I can see why you are. How about we make a laundry date for tomorrow night? We can go to the laundromat together and do your laundry."

"That is a sucky time for you. I'm sure that doing laundry was not your first choice of things to do on your Saturday night."

"I don't mind. Remember, I offered. As long as I am together with you, I am happy just hanging out, doing whatever. Besides, I can answer more of your questions while we are waiting for the wash." With a smile, he held the apartment door open for me.

"Okay, I will plan on going to my parents for dinner on Sunday. With having my laundry already done, I will be able to avoid spending too much time there."

"Are your mother and grandmother still on the warpath for trying to get you to settle down with Morelli?"

"My mother would like me to settle down with any number of potential partners. Anyone who will provide grandchildren. My grandmother is a little more understanding and flexible. She just wants me to settle down with someone who is good in bed."

"I notice you aren't dressed for the takedown."

"This is a sixteen-year old girl. She has already paid for the trespassing. She will be in pain every time it rains for the rest of her life. I don't think she needs to be terrified as well."

"Yet you wanted me around."

"You are terrifying, but I didn't want you for your sharpshooting skills. I wanted you because you're cute."

"Cute? I think my testosterone levels just dropped two notches."

"Cute is a good thing. Would you feel better if I said you are hot?"

"Hot is better than cute." He held open the Cayenne door for me.

"Then you are sizzling", I said as he got into the car.

"I guess I could live with sizzling."

"What would you prefer to be called?"

"I don't know. Dangerous? Deadly? Dastardly?"

"I don't know about dastardly, but you are definitely dangerous."

"For the record, I don't know about dastardly either. I just like the sound of the word." Ranger smiled. "If I am just cute, I have to work out in the gym a little more, perhaps shave my head and get a tattoo. Maybe some kill marks under my eye?"

"No, you don't need the trappings. All you have to do is be focused and talk quietly, and you scare the crap out of everybody."

"Now that is more like I am talking about. I like the sound of that. Scary Ranger is much better than Cute Ranger. Cute Ranger reminds me of bunnies and puppies." His distaste was shown so clearly on his face that I started to laugh.

"Don't worry. You are definitely the manly sort. People don't look at you and think of puppies and bunnies. Although, Alyssa Peyton will probably look at you and think about having sex with you."

"Having sex with me!?"

"Everybody looks at you and thinks about having sex with you. Connie does, Lula does, even my grandmother does. You are just the whole package." Then, to tease Ranger, I said "because you're cute."

"Even your grandmother does?"

"Especially my grandmother does. But don't take it personally. She looks at all men that way. I would worry more if she didn't look at you and think about sex. She even thinks about sex with Mr. Cooper from the church, and he is about four hundred pounds overweight, is ninety-three years old and has Alzheimer's. He is so confused I am not even sure if he remembers what sex is."

"Bad mental picture with that one, Babe."

"My grandmother and Betty Gringle, her eighty-year old best friend, get together on a regular basis and talk about different men they have seen and try to determine the size of their packages. That's why my grandmother was so happy to see you come out of the shower when we were in Atlantic City capturing that terrorist. You were on her bucket list, and after she saw you she said she could die happy. She would be very happy to find out that we are starting to date. My mother, not so much. You don't want kids. But my grandmother? She says that it's always better to go after bedroom skills because that's what will make you happy."

"I was on her bucket list? Now that is scary."

"Yes. She went through a period where she tried to fill her bucket list. I think she must have filled her list, because she stopped talking about it." We pulled up outside Alyssa's house, got out of the car, and walked up to the door. "You are taking lead on this, remember", I whispered to Ranger as I rang the doorbell.

A middle-aged woman came to the door, wiping her hands dry on a tea towel. "May I help you?" she said, looking briefly at me before focusing on Ranger. She looked him up and down and swallowed audibly.

Ranger introduced himself and me, and explained that we were there to escort her daughter back to the station to be rescheduled. "My daughter was unable to go to court on her date. Her leg was paining her and she was unable to walk."

"Is she able to walk today?" asked Ranger.

"She's walking with some difficulty. She'll need help. I don't understand why Alyssa is the person who is being treated like a criminal here. She was injured on that man's property. He should be charged."

"I am going to leave that up to the police, ma'am. That is outside my jurisdiction. However, what is in my jurisdiction is to bring Alyssa into the station so that she can get rescheduled. Right now, because she did not show up to court, no matter how logical or just the reason, she is considered a wanted fugitive until she gets rescheduled. I am sure you would prefer for us to bring her in from the house here, rather than in front of all her friends at school."

"Yes, I would. Thank you for your thoughtfulness." She turned around and walked back into the house and up the stairs, calling for Alyssa as she went.

Ranger and I stood quietly, listening to the sounds of Alyssa crying, saying that it wasn't fair. Her mother pleading with her, and Alyssa refusing to come down the stairs. After several minutes, Mrs. Peyton came back and said that Alyssa was in too much pain to come down to see us. "Perhaps if you come back tomorrow?"

"May we speak to her?" asked Ranger.

"I…I guess so." She led us through the house up to Alyssa's bedroom. We entered the ideal teenage retreat. The room was large with a sleeping and a separate sitting area. Alyssa was sitting on the couch, her foot raised on several cushions. She was playing a video game on the TV, a bag of cheez doodles open beside her, a family-sized pop bottle open on the coffee table. There were clothes all over the floor. We could see through to the ensuite bathroom. There were drawers open, with make-up, a hair straightener and a hair dryer left haphazardly on the counter. Alyssa looked at us and her mouth hung open, half-eaten cheez doodles falling out onto her shirt in an orange powder waterfall.

"I am Ranger, and this is my partner, Stephanie. We are here representing your bail bonds agent. You missed your court date and now you have to go back into the station to get rescheduled. We have come to escort you."

"You want me to go with you?" she asked, stupefied.

"Yes."

Alyssa's mother cleared her throat and said "Alyssa, I was just telling Ranger and Stephanie that your leg is much too sore to go into the station right now. Perhaps if they come back tomorrow?"

Ranger glanced at Alyssa and saw the star-struck look in her eyes. "I am sorry, but I am busy tomorrow. This is a one-shot deal. You can either go with me now, or you can wait for Tank to make you come tomorrow. Either way, Tank will not leave here tomorrow without you, even if he has to pick you up in your pyjamas and take you in dressed like that."

"Who is Tank? Is he as cute as you?"

I tried not to laugh. Ranger looked absolutely pained when Alyssa called him cute. I jumped in. "Tank is one of our associates. He is named Tank because he is built like a tank. He really should have been called Bubba. He will not be as gentle with you as Ranger is." That is actually a lie. Although Tank is intimidatingly large at 6'6" and built like a tank, his gentleness is shown by his doting adoption of three stray cats.

"All right, I guess I could go in now." She put her leg down on the ground and, with a lot of grunting and whimpering, got to her feet.

"Do you need to take some pain relievers before you go?" Ranger asked.

"No, I just took some half an hour ago. You need to go ahead of me down the stairs. I take a bit of time." With lots of pained facial expressions and grunts, Alyssa started down the stairs. She looked at me as I walked ahead of her. "What happened to your leg?" she asked me.

I stopped and turned to the Peytons. "A dog bit me a couple of days ago."

"That looks like it hurt", said Alyssa's mother.

"It did. It still does. However, that is the way it goes sometimes." I shrugged my shoulders and continued down the stairs, meeting Ranger at the bottom to wait for Alyssa's long, slow descent.

Alyssa finally made it to the bottom. "You could have carried me", she said, looking at Ranger. "I wouldn't have minded."

"I could have. But it will be good for your body to move around a bit. It's not good to be so still and, looking at your room, I suspect you have been still for a long time."

Alyssa stuck her lip out in a pout. Ranger looked at me and I could tell that he was thinking about smiling, then looked back at Alyssa. "Stephanie is going to move the car closer to the house so that you have less distance to walk. I will stay with you while she gets the car." Ranger handed me the keys. I walked down to the Cayenne and pulled it up into the driveway. Ranger and Mrs. Peyton made slow progress, following Alyssa out of the house.

"Is this really necessary? It wasn't her fault, you know", said Mrs. Peyton.

"That isn't up to me to decide, ma'am. That's for the courts to decide." Ranger's phone buzzed with a text message. Ranger read it, then handed his phone over to me. "We have a problem, Babe."

I read the message. It was from Eduardo. _"Have been doing surveillance since we came on shift. Someone lobbed a Molotov cocktail into the backseat of the car. Car is still smoking. Miguel caught the kid. Would like you to come and question him. We aren't getting anywhere."_

"We'll drive over to Eduardo to drop me off, then you can drop Alyssa at the station before coming back to pick up the guys and me. By the sounds of it, the car is a write-off."

"I'm just glad no one was hurt."

"We have to go, ma'am. An emergency has occurred and I need to be with my staff right now." He picked up Alyssa and walked her over to the car, depositing her in the backseat. Alyssa looked ecstatic and tried to hang onto his neck after he sat her down. Ranger dodged her groping hands and snapped her in her seatbelt.

I quickly climbed in the passenger seat and handed Ranger the car keys. He sped off to the smoking car on Stark.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Ranger parked the car behind the fire truck. Cops were milling around, Miguel and Eduardo looking grim as they stood beside a teenager who was in cuffs. Luke was looking energized. Ranger got out of the car and walked over to the Rangeman team. "Luke, you're with Stephanie. Eduardo and Miguel, you're with me", I heard him say.

"But…" said Luke. Ranger just turned and looked at him. Luke stopped protesting and turned towards the car.

"The keys are in the ignition. Stephanie needs transport to the station with a skip, and then you are bringing the Cayenne back to pick us up. Stephanie is in charge."

Luke got into the car and started driving to the station. "You should have seen it, Stephanie. This kid just walked by and threw the bottle in the car at me. Eduardo and I jumped out of the car and Miguel took after the kid. Then, wham! Miguel had him in cuffs before the kid even knew what was going on. It was beautiful. That's why I wanted to work at Rangeman. Not for this surveillance shit."

"You realize that ninety-five percent of what you do at Rangeman is standard driving around and surveillance, don't you? Then you have little spikes where there is some action. And often the action is pretty tame."

"I'm going to request to move towards a team that has more action. I'm not a person who can sit around and wait for something to happen. I'm a slam, bam, thank you ma'am kind of guy. The kind of guy that can get the job done."

"You're already on the team that has all the action."

"Eduardo and Miguel didn't seem enthused when it was all going down. I was all 'bring it on, baby', and they were all 'oh, crap'. I could do their job better than them."

"You should take a lesson from Eduardo and Miguel. They are extremely good at what they do. And they probably thought 'oh, crap' because they knew how close you came to all being toasted. They knew you had been made, and they knew that all those hours you had put into surveillance are now shot." We got out of the car, Alyssa listening interestedly to our conversation. She was listening so intently she forgot to complain when she had to walk into the station.

"Stephanie, do you know whether Ranger has a girlfriend?" Alyssa asked.

"Yes, he does."

"Oh, okay."

"And even if he didn't, he would prefer to go out with someone who was born in the same decade as himself."

We entered the building just as Morelli was walking out. "Working late?" I asked with a smile.

"Same as you, Cupcake. Who are you bringing in?"

I looked over at Alyssa, and her eyes had glazed over. I think she had gone into hotness overload.

"This is Alyssa Peyton. She was caught in an animal trap when she was trespassing on and vandalizing her neighbour's property after she was warned off it."

"I heard about the Rangeman vehicle getting torched. I'm glad you are okay. Was anyone hurt?"

"No. Luke was just telling me all about it. Ranger and I were picking up Alyssa when we got the call. We drove over to Stark and dropped Ranger off and picked up Luke. Eduardo and Miguel are there with Ranger. Everybody is fine, thank goodness."

"Do you know why the kid did it?"

"I'm not sure. Luke, did Miguel and Eduardo find out why the guy did it?"

"I don't know. The kid only spoke Spanish and I didn't understand what was being said."

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Cupcake?"

"Sure can. Luke, would you please cuff Alyssa to the bench and then take my paperwork over to the duty officer for my body receipt?" Luke nodded his head and escorted Alyssa over to the bench, hurrying to get back to us as soon as possible.

"I don't like the way that kid looks at you", said Joe.

"Alyssa?"

"No, Luke. He looks at you like he's going to jump you."

"I think he's harmless. He's just pumped from this evening. Whereas everyone else was unhappy about the events that happened tonight, Luke is excited. He's young and has only been on the job for a week, most of which time he spent doing surveillance. Ranger is getting tired of hiring staff for their security potential. He would rather hire former SEALS and Special Forces or, at least, those with a military background. He is having trouble finding applicants and he needs bodies so badly."

"I heard that Vinnie has a long list of skips outstanding right now. That must be leaving him one man short on research as well."

"I'm currently working about ninety hour work weeks. I've been catching people, but Vinnie is racking them up faster than I can capture them. I even have a crew from Rangeman helping me. Vinnie currently has ten skips outstanding now that I have caught Alyssa."

"Be careful. You don't want to get burned out. Do you have any ideas on how to capture these skips? Are they going to be easy captures, or challenging ones?"

"I have a plan and hope to have most, if not all, of the skips captured by the end of Monday." I stood on my tiptoes, Morelli bent down and I whispered to him my plan to offer a bottle of whiskey in order to entice the skips to give themselves up.

Morelli started to laugh when I got to the end of my explanation. "That's brilliant, Cupcake. I will stick around the precinct as much as I can on Monday to see how it goes. If I get called out, can you let me know?"

"Sure thing. I need to go. Luke is finished and is coming over."

"Thanks for giving me a laugh. It has been a crappy day. I got two murders in today, and then everybody and their brother was calling me to let me know that Rangeman's car got torched and wanted to know if you were in it. I tried texting you."

I pulled out my phone. "No texts have come in yet. I guess it was lucky then that we were bringing in a skip and you caught me here."

"Yeah, it's certainly better for my heartburn. Take care of yourself", he said, dropping a light kiss on my lips before turning around and leaving.

"Morelli, that's his name, right?" Luke said as he came up to me. When I nodded my head, Luke said "is he your boyfriend?"

"No, he's my ex-boyfriend. We're just good friends now."

"I don't like him. I don't trust him", said Luke.

I thought about what Morelli had said. I didn't have a problem with the way that Luke treated me, but I still agreed with Joe. I didn't like Luke very much. There was just something about him that set me off. Maybe it was his overenthusiastic response to danger, maybe it was his belief that he could do the job better than Eduardo and Miguel. I could not place it, but I didn't like him.

* * *

"Why did you apply to work at Rangeman?" I asked Luke on the way back to Stark.

"For the excitement. I wanted to be a cop, but I didn't pass the psychiatric evaluation. They said I was too trigger happy and should consider a more relaxed job. But I really want a job where I can carry a gun, where I have the ability to shoot people. I know that I can be the best Rangeman employee ever."

"Did you tell Ranger and Tank about your job application to the police department and what happened with it?"

"No, I didn't think it was necessary. After all, Tank didn't ask me specifically about the police department in the interview. So I didn't really lie when I failed to mention it."

"Did you tell him about your wish to shoot people?"

"No, it never came up."

"Did Tank ask you why you wanted to work for Rangeman?"

"He did."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him that people were important to me and I wanted to protect them."

"Don't you think shooting someone goes against the need to protect people?"

"I would only shoot the baddies. What do you take me for?"

"All people who are shot dead are murdered, whether they are done in self-defence or done in cold blood. Those that are shot are siblings, friends, family members to at least one person out there. No matter the reason for shooting, there will be someone out there mourning the loss of life that occurs as a result of your bullet. Shooting is not an easy thing to live with, nor should it be."

"I could handle it."

"What are you, eighteen?"

"No, I am twenty."

"Talk to me in another five years as to whether it is easy to shoot someone. I hope you never have to find out how hard it is to do." We arrived at the scene. The fire truck had left and the police were just putting the kid in the cruiser. I got out of the car and walked over to Ranger. He took one look at me and I could tell by his tight eyes that he was not happy. "You okay?" I asked quietly.

"Later." He looked at me and said "you okay?"

"Later. Did you find out anything?"

"The kid was hired by someone who we think might have been the local drug dealer. He saw my guys sitting at the curb for a long time and thought that we were on surveillance for him. So he decided to get rid of us. Through this process, we have now been made and can no longer sit here. I have sent Eduardo and Miguel up to Nyetta's apartment, but he again was not there. I think we are going to have to revisit his file and think of somewhere else we can pick him up."

"I have at least one idea for that, although it is a long shot."

"A long shot is better than what we have right now."

We all got in the car, Ranger driving, me in the front passenger seat, and the rest of the guys squished in the back. "Did Eduardo and Miguel tell you that I got a few licks in and softened him up for you?" asked Luke. "Did he talk for you? He only spoke in Spanish to us, despite me telling him that I don't speak Spanish. That was when I hit him, to try to get him to do what we wanted."

"He only spoke Spanish because that was the only language that he speaks. He doesn't speak English", said Ranger.

"This is an English-speaking country. He should learn how to speak the language."

"The kid wanted you charged with assault."

"Assault! He was the one that ran away from us! Tell Ranger, guys. Tell him how that asshole ran away from us when we asked him to stop."

Eduardo and Miguel didn't say anything, and an uncomfortable silence fell in the car.

"Cowards", Luke said under his breath.

Ranger jerked the car over to the side of the road. "Out!" he said in a low voice. "Luke, you are going to walk the rest of the way to Rangeman. You are going to use the time while you walk to think about how this evening went and what you would do if you had the chance to do it over again. When you get in, come up to my office so that we can talk about this. I will see you in about twenty minutes."

* * *

"So, when I said 'later' it was to tell you about Luke's assault on the kid."

"You're very angry."

"Anger is unproductive but yes, I'm not pleased. What did you say 'later' about? You also didn't look pleased."

"There were a few things. He lied in the interview with Tank. He failed to mention that he had failed the psych evaluation for the cop shop, and that the fact that he's too trigger happy is the reason he was not offered a job with the TPD. Also, he said that he told Tank he wanted to work at Rangeman so that he could protect people when in fact he is an adrenaline junkie. He lives for the excitement and the possibility of shooting people. He did not seem to understand the impact it can make on a person when you have to shoot someone. He said that he is going to ask you to transfer him to a team that sees more action, as he feels that is where his strength lies. So I asked him if he was eighteen, and he said that he was twenty. Since I know that you don't hire anyone under the age of twenty-five, I realized that he lied on his job application. Then there was that overenthusiastic joy over the takedown. I don't know. Besides being a liar, immature and trigger happy, I don't really have any concrete reasons why I don't like him. I just don't."

"Being a liar, trigger happy and immature are all good reasons why Luke has to go." Tank came to the door of Ranger's office and I stood up to leave. "By the way, how did it go at the precinct?"

"Good. I got Luke to look after Alyssa while I spoke with Morelli. He thought our plan for Monday was brilliant and wants a report on how it went. He got two murders on his desk today, so he wasn't smiling about much."

"You didn't tell Morelli the reason that you wanted to have me go along for the takedown of Alyssa, did you?"

"No, but since she went gaga over Morelli as well, I think he would have believed you."

"I think I missed something in that conversation. Why did you want Ranger along on the takedown?" asked Tank.

"We were capturing a sixteen-year old girl, and I figured that this girl would be like most sixteen-year old girls and would develop instant crushes. I was not wrong. She took one look at Ranger and was willing to follow him anywhere. The only tricky part was when she wanted to have Ranger carry her down the steps. She was ecstatic that the emergency happened because it meant that Ranger actually picked her up, carried her off the porch and put her in the car. I had to tell her that Ranger would prefer to date someone who was born in the same decade as himself when we were at the station."

Ranger sat there shaking his head. "She said I was cute", he lamented.

Tank took a deep breath in. "Cute!" he said. "My kitties are cute. Puppies are cute. Bunnies are cute. Real men aren't cute."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

I worked on the Sales files for a while. Luke came into the office to speak to Ranger all filled with swagger, and left morosely. I could only assume that Ranger had fired him.

Ranger stayed in his office with Tank with the door closed for a while afterwards. Eduardo and Miguel wandered into my office to talk. "Do you know if Ranger fired that hothead?" asked Eduardo.

"I have no idea. I just know that Ranger was not happy. And neither was Luke when he left."

"I don't know why Ranger is having all these problems with hiring lately."

"Rangeman is growing so quickly, and Ranger needs people so desperately he is hiring the best of the pool that has applied. The problem is that not very good people have applied. We need to figure out a better way of hiring people. Ranger would prefer to have people with military backgrounds as they have already been trained in the discipline and responsibility that comes with carrying a gun. However, there are only so many military out there that are interested in working in security, and they are hard to find."

"I have a couple of my buddies from Special Forces who are looking for work. I will let them know of the openings with Ranger", said Miguel.

"I also have a couple of friends looking for work from my military days", said Eduardo. "They are good guys and would be a strong addition to the team if we were able to sign them on. I will also let them know of the job openings."

"Ranger would be forever grateful to have some qualified people apply. Did you hear that Logan, the new recruit that Hal and Calvin were training, fell asleep on the job? Ranger drove him back to the office and let him go for the day without pay. He said he wanted to see him working this weekend. Ranger was definitely not impressed, but at least he did not make him get out of the car and walk the rest of the way back to the office."

"Yeah, that was pretty sweet", said Eduardo. "All right, I have some calls to make to my former teammates. They will be glad of the call. Talk to you later, chica."

"Me, too. I also have some calls to make."

"Tell your friends to apply soon, as Ranger needs bodies quickly. And let Ranger know what your friends say if they are interested. I think he is worried about overworking his staff, and is having to make the decision between overworking staff, a reduction in quality of security services, or hiring from the less than stellar job applicants. You will improve upon his day if you can come up with qualified job applicants for him."

Several minutes later, Eduardo walked by my office and stuck his thumbs in the air. "Got two applicants for Ranger."

A few minutes later Miguel joined him. "All done. Got two more applicants for Ranger to choose from."

"Text the contact information to Ranger, then knock on his door and stick your head in to tell him that the information has come in. As I said, I think it will make his day having a recommendation come from you."

* * *

I worked for two more hours on the files from Sales. I was able to clean up all the outstanding files, and I just had left the large file from Ranger to do the following day, as well as finding those two other outstanding skips – Vance Deville, who was not interested in a free bottle of Jack, and Nolan Nyetta, who we had not been able to find. By the time I was ready to leave, Ranger was still holed away in his office with Tank. Not wanting to interrupt them, I texted Ranger. _"Finished Sales files. Going home. Rex needs to be fed. I'll be in the office tomorrow to work on your file. Not sure what time – I'm planning on sleeping in a bit. Will come to work with dirty laundry if you are still game for a clean date."_

Then I sent a text to my mother. _"Was thinking about coming for dinner on Sunday if that is all right with you."_

I was locking up my office when Ranger came out of his office. "Are you finished your meeting?" I asked.

"No, but I wanted to take a minute to give you a kiss goodbye." He drew me into his arms and gave me a deep kiss that had me forgetting that we were in the offices at Rangeman and that everything at Rangeman is monitored. Ranger drew back, whispered "drive carefully" in my ear, gave me a light kiss on the lips, and walked back into his office, leaving me still dazed.

* * *

I walked into my apartment, exhausted down to the bone. I put my gun in my cookie jar, fed Rex and changed his water. I then washed, toned and moisturized my face, changed into a sleep camisole and boxer shorts, and dropped into bed. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Sometime during the night I dimly heard the apartment door open and a gun belt dropped on my kitchen counter. I went back to sleep reassured. If it had been someone coming in with ill intent, they wouldn't have taken off their gun belt. I was asleep before it registered with me who it was.

* * *

The next morning I awoke when Ranger's watch alarm went off at seven o'clock. We were cuddled in a spoons formation. Ranger had one hand up my shirt and was resting on my breast, the other arm pillowing my head. He stirred and turned off his alarm, and as he shifted he proved to me that men really do wake up interested in sex. He gently tried to extricate himself from the bed. I, less gently, tried to hold him back. I flipped over onto my other side until I was facing him and kissed his chest.

"I am going for a run, Babe. I will put the coffee on before I go. Now go back to sleep."

"Are you coming back?"

"Yes. I am just going for a run. I won't be long – no more than an hour and likely less. Unless you want to come with me?"

"Thanks, but no thanks. My leg is still sore, remember?" I asked, glad to have an excuse. Although, truth be told, I will always be able to come up with an excuse to not have to run. The question isn't whether I can come up with an excuse. The question is whether Ranger will accept it.

With a final kiss, Ranger got dressed, finished in the bathroom, and left the apartment. I heard the locks slide shut as he left and, wondering where he kept his lockpicking tools in his workout gear, I fell back to sleep.

* * *

An hour later Ranger woke me up, coffee in hand for me, freshly showered and shaved and ready to go for the day. I slowly came to consciousness as it registered that Ranger was calling my name and rubbing his thumb across my cheekbone. "Your phone has been pinging and the day has started. Are you going to get up or are you going to sleep more?"

"Let the caffeine kick in for a moment before I answer that, because I suspect it will be an entirely different answer." Ranger smiled one of his full-on smiles, and I paused to enjoy the view. After all, it is not often that Ranger smiles in a full-on smile, and I could never be too sleepy to appreciate it. In truth, I would have to be dead to fail to enjoy it.

"I don't know. I like you when you are all sleepy and snuggly. Do you remember me coming in last night?"

"Vaguely. I heard your gun belt hit the kitchen counter before I figured everything was safe and went back to sleep."

"You asked me who I was but I think you were asleep again before I got a chance to answer."

"I was pretty tired, so I'm not surprised."

"Who did you think it was?"

"I don't know." I got up to use the facilities and to brush my teeth. Coming out of the bathroom, I said "it hasn't been that long since Morelli was the one coming into my apartment in the middle of the night, so I might have been trying to decide if you were you or Morelli. Or I might have wondered if you were one of my skips. It wouldn't be the first time one of my skips came into my apartment, although it would be the first time the skip came in while I was sleeping. The possibilities are endless as to who could be in my apartment. Just be glad I was sleeping with my phone within reach."

"The possibilities terrify me. I am incredibly glad that you have monitoring on your front door and the fire escape now. That may not stop anyone from breaking in, but it should get them caught when they do so."

"It was a good thing to do, even if I don't like being monitored so closely."

"You should be used to it. You are monitored just as closely, if not more so, at Rangeman."

"I know. And it gives me an icky feeling to know that all the control room staff know when I sleep over at your place. It strips away the privacy of what we are doing, and hammers away at the beauty of it all."

"What is the solution? Rent a room for the night?"

"No, that makes what we are doing seem dirty and wrong. I don't think there is a solution to this. It just is what it is, and I have to get used to it. Chalk it up to one of the negatives of having casual sex."

"I take exception to the term 'casual sex'. I think there is more than casual sex between us, isn't there?"

"I don't know what it is between us. I know that we are good friends, and that we are sleeping together. I also know that I am terrified of making our relationship more formal because I have a way of screwing relationships up, yet it doesn't matter how much time I spend with you I always want more. That smacks of a relationship in itself. Having said that, I don't want to float into a relationship with you. I floated into my marriage and that didn't last more than three months. I floated into my relationship with Morelli, and that lasted longer but ultimately ended in failure as well. Partly from experience, and partly due to your requirements for increased security if I end up formally dating you, I am trying not to float into a relationship with you but rather decide on a relationship with both eyes wide open."

"That's probably wise."

"Where are you in all this?"

"Honestly? I think I am closer to the relationship decision than you are. My concerns over your security have been appeased with you wearing your tracking watch, and having your apartment and car monitored. Realistically, you could not be more monitored. I will always be a bit worried about you, but I will be worried about you whether we are going out together or are just friends. I think friendship is a fabulous place to start a relationship from and, even if we make our relationship more formal into a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship or even if we end up splitting up at some point, I hope that we will always remain good friends."

"You have a failed marriage in your past as well. Do you not worry about getting more serious?"

"That's the thing with you. I typically worry about getting more serious and, in the past, have put the brakes on any relationship long before it got to the point where my relationship is with you now. However, I'm confident with you. My self-preservation instinct hasn't kicked in and I haven't run away screaming. That is why you are the only female that has been in my apartment, not including Ella, and you are the only female since my marriage that I have taken home to meet my family. I know you have concerns that you have to work through, but I would like to try a relationship with you. I love you and, although it seems very teenager-ish to put labels on it, I would like to be your boyfriend."

"Wow", was all I could think of to say. Ranger smiled one of his half-smiles, got up and refilled my coffee cup. "I think that woke me up more than the coffee."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Ranger left for the office before I finished my second cup of coffee, me mentally berating myself for my inability to commit. The truth was, I loved Ranger as well. Of course, I loved Morelli, too, and look where that relationship went. Down the toilet. Truth be told, I still love Morelli, although in a more platonic-friends-with-a-rich-history sort of way. I am not sure how I love Ranger. I know I love him in a friends-with-benefits sort of way. And I know that I am hanging onto the excuse of not knowing him better to avoid getting more serious with him. Because in actuality, that is an excuse. You never truly know a person. There will always be surprises, even if you are together for a million years, even a gazillion years. I know him well enough to know that he would always try to take care of me, even if it is to his own detriment, and he would always try to do his best for me. Having said that, I was hurt and angry when I broke up with The Dick, and I was confused and hurt when I broke up with Morelli. However, if I got involved in a relationship with Ranger I have the potential of being devastated in a way that Dickie and Morelli had not been able to accomplish. My self-preservation instincts were kicking in and I was leery of getting hurt like that.

I had not finished puzzling out my relationship with Ranger by the time the water had run cold in the shower. I quickly shampooed, conditioned and soaped, avoiding using Ranger's signature Bulgari Green scent of body wash and instead using my fruity orange one, and rinsed off in the cold water, getting out while turning blue and goose-bumpy. I could always invite him to my parents for dinner on Sunday, I thought. By the time I had toweled off I had discarded the idea. I didn't think I was ready for the assumption that Ranger and I were together yet. I didn't think I would want to take Ranger home for dinner until we actually were together. I shook off my introspective mood while I blow dried my hair and put on makeup, and dressed in a black tennis skirt and a pale pink stretchy girl t-shirt. I was as ready for the day as I would ever be.

* * *

Getting to the Rangeman facility, I walked down to my office and unlocked my door. Inside was a fresh rose in a bud vase on my desk. I smiled and felt my heart melt a little.

I dropped my purse into my drawer and, grimacing, put on my gun belt. I locked my purse in the drawer, smiling a little at my need for security. There were few men within the Rangeman building who would not be able to get into my drawer within seconds.

I booted up my computer while I walked down to the break room for some coffee. As I got there, my stomach grumbled and I remembered that I had forgotten to eat breakfast that morning. I grabbed a yogurt parfait and a granola bar and took my haul back to my office. Four hours later, I had long since finished my breakfast and was getting hungry for lunch. Ranger's file was half completed and I had not seen him since my apartment this morning. I mentally castigated myself some more for being a fool. There was no reason to be nervous of a relationship with Ranger, yet I was. And besides the fear of being hurt, I was not exactly sure why.

Feeling unsure of myself, I did not go down to see if Ranger was interested in having lunch with me. Instead, I went to the break room and met up with Hal. He was sitting quietly eating his lunch when I got there. "Hey, Steph", he said. "How's it going?"

"It's going."

"I heard there was a kerfuffle last night and a fleet car got torched."

"Not according to my standards. In my books, that car was definitely still drivable." And it's true. With my history of car bombings, vandalism, accidents and explosions, I have driven cars that were in much worse shape than the fleet car was after the fire crew was finished with it.

"Yeah, I remember when your car got toasted with Mama Macaroni in it. Your car was a mess then."

"You mean cars are supposed to have floorboards in them?"

"Seats are good too, and the lack of smell of burnt human flesh is a nice feature to have in a car."

"And I thought that was a selling point for it", I smiled.

"Eduardo and Miguel said that Ranger has contacted their friends to do telephone interviews tomorrow for positions in Rangeman. They are really happy. They said that Ranger said last night that, if their friends work out, he will hire all four. He said that finding qualified people is so hard that he will hire them before the guys have a chance to accept another job, even though he really only needs two more staff right now. I think he is thinking that he might transfer some of the Operations guys into Sales since he also needs more staff in Sales."

"Who is he thinking of transferring?"

"I heard Ethan and Joshua."

"They would be good in Sales. They have good personalities for it."

"That's what I think as well. And both of those guys moonlight part-time as sales people in retail stores, so we know they have the skills and experience." Hal stood up. "My lunchtime is over. I have to go back on the monitoring station to cover for Calvin. Nice talking to you", he said and left the room.

I selected a sandwich from the tray, a cranberry juice, and a container of cut fruit. I refilled my coffee cup and took my lunch down to my office to eat while I worked.

* * *

Four hours later I stood up and stretched. My file was done for Ranger, and I was all caught up on Rangeman work for the time being. I mentally thanked Ranger for giving the Sales staff weekends off.

I took the file down to Ranger's office. He was working on the computer as I walked in. "Thank you for the flower this morning. I've been admiring it all day."

"You're welcome."

"Here's your file. I was able to finish it today."

"I have about half an hour of work left to do before dinner. Do you want to come up to the apartment for dinner and then head out to the laundromat to do your laundry?"

"Sounds good to me. I could use the time to review Nyetta's file." Ranger turned back to the computer as I left him and walked back to my office. I pulled out all the information that I had accumulated on Nyetta. There was his apartment as a potential capture site. I could canvas his neighbours to find out when he was normally at home. I could contact his doctor to try to determine when he was going to come in for an appointment. I could contact his pharmacy to identify a typical time for him to refill his prescriptions, and I could talk to his family members to identify a potential capture site. I reviewed his file and wrote down his medical contact information on a sheet, as well as pulled out the names and contact information of his mother, brother, sister-in-law, and ex-girlfriend. I put aside this information and was completing another search on him when Ranger came into my office.

"It's nice to see you. I missed you today", he said.

"I missed you as well." I felt uncomfortable, not knowing where the conversation was going after our relationship talk this morning. It was a little disconcerting to know that Ranger wanted a relationship when I was used to thinking of him being just as much of a commitment-phobe as I was.

"Are you ready for dinner?"

"Just about." Ranger sat down on one of the guest chairs while I finished reviewing the search results. "Just as I suspected. No new information."

"What's your capture plan?"

"Canvassing his doctor and pharmacist to see when he is next due to refill his prescriptions, and canvassing his family and ex-girlfriend to see if they have any ideas of where to look. I don't have a lot of ideas, unfortunately." I shut down my computer and unlocked my drawer. I picked up my purse and put my gun and holster in it. Then I turned off the lights and locked the door behind me, following Ranger up to his apartment.

"Do you want to stay over tonight?" Ranger asked as we were on the elevator on the way up to his apartment.

"That would be nice if that's okay with you." Ranger was quiet and, for one of the first times during our entire friendship, it was an uncomfortable silence.

We got in the apartment and smelled a creole shrimp casserole keeping warm in the oven. I took a bowl of salad out of the fridge with dressings, and Ranger took the shrimp and rice casserole out of the oven. He poured water while I put cutlery on the table. The whole time, I felt tense and uncertain, and I kept stumbling in Ranger's way as we set the table for dinner. Ranger dished up a portion for himself and handed me the spoon. I dished up my own dinner and sat at the table.

"You know," said Ranger, "our talk this morning changes nothing. We are still good friends and we are still enjoying the benefits. The fact that I want something more is not new to me. I have wanted more for a long time, long before you broke up with Morelli. I don't think that desire is going to go away. However, I understand if you aren't ready for a relationship or if you're not wanting more with me. I won't like it, but I won't create a problem for you. I don't want to jeopardize our friendship as, ultimately, it is our friendship that is most important to me. But if you are ever ready for more than a friendship or, if you want to take the extra step from the 'with benefits' designation, I will be willing and ready to do so."

"I'm scared", I blurted out.

Ranger took my hand in his and intertwined our fingers. "I know. I would never purposely hurt you though."

"I know. But you have the power to hurt me more than anyone else I have ever met. You have become my rock over the last few years, and I rely on you for support. What happens if we mess that up? What happens to me if I lose your support?"

"You look like you are standing on the edge of a cliff and are looking down. I have already jumped and know that it will turn out okay. However, there are stairs to the side of the cliff and we can take baby steps down the stairs. You don't need to jump if you don't want to. The important thing is to not lose momentum and to keep moving forward."

"How did you get to be so understanding?" pulling my hand back from his so that I could eat.

"I have had a long time of watching and wanting you. I am not going to do anything purposely that will result in this getting fucked up."

"You're totally serious about this relationship thing."

"Yes, I am. I've been serious about this for a long time. I love you."

"I love you, too" popped out of my mouth before I had time to think. I am not sure who it surprised more. Ranger has periodically told me that he loved me in the past, but I had never told him that I loved him in return. I thought for a minute, assessing my feelings, and decided that what I said was true. I did love him. I just wasn't sure whether I loved him in a way that would support a relationship. Hell, I was so confused that I wasn't even sure what was needed in a successful relationship.

"Then that, for now, is all we need to know." Ranger finished his dinner and pushed aside his plate. The silence that descended was much more comfortable. "My parents have a good relationship. They are everything to each other. It was always each other first, followed by us kids, followed by grandparents and extended family, followed by the restaurant in importance. That is the kind of relationship that I want. What kind of relationship do your parents have?"

"I'm not exactly sure. They have a symbiotic relationship. My father supports my mother and agrees to stay out of household affairs and, in return, my mother treats my father as if he is the king of the castle. The whole family knows that this is just an illusion. My father is definitely not the king of the castle. My mother rules the roost but she pretends that my father is the most important person and that makes him happy. I guess my mother is happy. I am not sure who is most important in her life. I would guess that it is Val and myself, but I am not sure. She sort of spreads herself around and there is no defined pecking order."

"What do you want in a relationship?"

"I don't know. I never really thought about it, which is probably why I have come through two serious yet unsuccessful relationships. I know a few things that I don't want, however. My experience with The Dick showed me that I want someone who is faithful and who is fair. I don't want to ever live through someone cheating on me again. That makes me a little uncomfortable saying that, since I technically cheated on Morelli all those times I slept with you when I was going out with him, but I don't think I could live with my potential boyfriend cheating on me again. My experience with Morelli showed me that I have to have someone who is willing to support me, no matter what. I make mistakes. Everybody does, but I make more than normal."

"I wouldn't say that."

"I would. It seems like I am always goofing up. But I need someone who isn't going to throw those mistakes in my face, who isn't going to blow up, who doesn't blame me for his heartburn, who doesn't start popping Rolaids whenever I get within five feet of him."

"Unwavering support and faithfulness. Sounds like we want some of the same things." He got up and put away the leftover salad, dressings and creole shrimp. I got up and wet the dishcloth to wipe down the table. When we were finished, Ranger pulled me into a hug. He gave me a kiss and, when our tongues touched, I felt a pull straight down through my abdomen. I leaned into him and wound my arms around his neck. After a few minutes, Ranger pulled back with a smile. "You have laundry to do, remember?"

I would have gladly forgotten the need to do laundry if it wasn't for the fact that I was wearing my last pair of clean underwear. Regretfully, I pulled back. "Damn. It is either do it now or spend more time at my parents tomorrow doing it then. Doing it now wins." Ranger gave me another quick kiss and walked me to the door of his apartment. I picked up my purse and walked out the door, hand in hand with Ranger.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter** **Thirteen**

The next morning I slept in until ten o'clock. Ranger and I had had a very busy night and I was very tired. I woke up relaxed and refreshed for what seemed like the first time since the Sunday before. Ranger was already up and was working in the office. I finished in the bathroom before walking in to see him reviewing timesheets.

"Did you already have your workout?" I asked with a yawn.

"Yes, and I spent an hour in the range practicing."

"Have you eaten breakfast?"

"No. I waited for you. Ella said that she would make us pancakes whenever we were ready."

"You eat syrup? Isn't that awfully sweet for you?"

Ranger smiled. "Yes, I do eat syrup. However, Ella makes this fabulous coconut sauce that she promised me she would make for the pancakes today. You'll love it." I slid into Ranger's lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. I gave him a deep kiss. "Or, we could wait for breakfast", he suggested.

* * *

Ranger was right. Ella's coconut sauce was much better than maple syrup. It was made with real coconut milk, and although Ella's pancakes were light and fluffy, they were just an excuse to have the sauce. I just about licked the plate clean when I was finished. Ranger was smiling as he watched me clean my plate. "Didn't I tell you it was good?" he asked.

"You did, and you were right. It was well worth waiting for."

"You minded waiting?" he asked, teasing me. "I seem to remember it being your idea to wait."

"The waiting period was worth waiting for as well. In fact, our whole day so far has been perfect."

"Did you want to go after either of your outstanding skips?"

"I want to go after Deville today, and perhaps do some phoning to try to get in touch with Nyetta's family members."

"Do you want company on capturing Deville?"

"That would be wonderful. He is like Alyssa. He should not be a runner because he was hurt in the blast. It should be a simple transport to the precinct."

I cleared the table and walked into the bathroom. Ranger got dressed and made the bed while I had a shower and shaved my legs, and dried my hair and applied makeup. I came out from the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Ranger was already back at work at the computer. I sorted through my clean laundry and pulled out the tank top dress that I wore on one of Ranger's and my dates and shimmied into it. In deference to the steamy heat outside, I put my hair up in a ponytail and put on sandals. "You are going to have your gun with you. Do you think I need to carry my gun as well? And since you are going to be there, do you think I can leave the pepper spray and the stun gun at home, too?"

"You should be fine to leave them at home this time. Deville sounds like he is going to be pretty tame."

"That's the hope." I put the gun and other paraphernalia on my shelf in Ranger's closet. Ranger came in behind me and picked up my gun, putting it in his locked gun cabinet. We then left the apartment for the day.

"Do you plan on carrying your gun and other accessories tomorrow?" asked Ranger.

"No, I don't. I wouldn't be able to wear them as a utility belt as it would tip the felons off, and although I might take just my pepper spray in my purse, I don't think with two Rangeman staff there with guns I need to be carrying a gun as well."

"Why don't you just carry your gun in your purse?"

"I could, but I think that is adding unnecessary weight."

"Okay. I will tell the staff that you won't be carrying and that you will need capture services first of all, and bodyguarding services as a secondary assignment."

"It's all going to be smooth sailing. We're not going to need bodyguarding services."

"Good. Then the Rangeman staff jobs will be easy." We got in the car and Ranger lifted my hand up to kiss my knuckles. "Where do you want to go for dinner tomorrow?"

"It will be quite late by the time we are finished. I think the last pick up is between eight and nine o'clock at night. How about if we have one of Ella's dinners and just go out for dessert and a drink afterwards?"

"Or, we could have Ella fix us a snack for dinner and then go out for a late dinner, just the two of us."

"That works, too."

"Let's do that. Where do you want to go?"

"I'm flexible. Do you have anywhere in mind?"

"How about Mexican food? I'll phone later to see if they're open tomorrow evening."

"That sounds good."

Ranger parked his car a couple of houses down the street. We got out of the car. "You are taking the lead this time, for the same reason I took the lead last time. When Deville gets his eyes on you in that dress, he'll follow you anywhere."

"Thanks. You look good, too." Ranger smiled one of his half-smiles and his eyes grew dark.

We walked up the front pathway to the door and rang the doorbell. After a few minutes, we rang the doorbell again. Ranger got down off the front porch and walked around the house, peering in windows. He came back, saying "there is a gentleman sitting in the chair watching TV at the back of the house. Keep ringing the doorbell and I am sure that he will come. I will try his phone to see if I can get him that way." Ranger pulled out his phone and called the number in Deville's file. Ranger was able to make a connection. "Mr. Deville, my partner and I are here representing your bonding agent, and we are at your front door right now. We are going to come in and I didn't want to scare you." He paused. "No, sir, this is not breaking and entering. You have missed your court date, and as such we now have the legal right to enter any premise in which we suspect you are hiding. Since I saw you through the window, I am certain you are currently at home. Do you want to come and unlock the door and let us in, or do we need to break in?" Ranger listened to an impressive litany of swear words, then handed the phone over to me to listen to while he took his lock picks out of this pocket and picked the lock. Within seconds he had unlocked the door and opened it. He took the phone back. "Sir, we are coming in now", he said, and hung up.

We walked through to the living room and saw Deville struggling to get out of the chair he was sitting on. "I want my gun, and I am going to shoot you", he said.

"Mr. Deville, we are here representing Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. You missed your court date and need to come back into the station to reschedule. Until you do, you are a wanted fugitive. Once you reschedule you can come back here to look after yourself until your court date comes up", I said.

"I shouldn't have to go to court. It was a mistake and anyone with half a brain can see that I am paying dearly for that mistake. It is not fair that I should have to go to jail as well."

"Cases aren't just thrown out for the sake of throwing out cases. It can be done, but you have to go to court and explain to the judge why your case should be thrown out. You cannot just autocratically decide that your case is not valid. I think you stand a good chance, but I cannot decide that either. That can only be decided in a court of law. What I can tell you is that, by not going into court, you are making yourself look bad and the judge will take that into consideration when he or she is determining what should happen. If I were you, I would get rescheduled as soon as you can, show up when you are supposed to, and clear this off your record."

"It's not fair."

"That may be, sir, but that is not for us to decide. That is for the judge to decide. Where did you get hurt in the blast?"

"I got all three of my legs burned before I was able to pull myself away from the inferno."

"All three?"

"Yeah, you know, my third one, if you catch my drift. Everything still hurts. I had blisters on top of blisters and have been on painkillers ever since the blast."

"I am sorry to hear that, sir. Do you need some help up off the couch?" I moved to take the blanket off Vance's lap. He grabbed the blanket back. "I don't have anything on. Clothes are too restrictive and uncomfortable."

"What do you wear to the doctor's when you go?"

"I wear sweatpants, but they are on the floor in my room and I am having troubles bending down to pick them up."

"Why don't you come up to the bedroom with us and point them out to me. I will pick them up for you, and Ranger will wait with you while you get dressed. Then we will take you in to the station."

"What happens if I don't want to get dressed?"

I shrugged. "You wouldn't be the first skip I have brought in wearing nothing at all. I wouldn't recommend that. And Ranger definitely wouldn't recommend that since we are driving his car. I will turn my back while you stand up so that you can wrap your blanket around yourself, and I will lead the way to your bedroom. You can show me your sweatpants when we get there."

I led the way to his bedroom and Vance pointed out his sweatpants on his very messy bedroom floor. I picked them up for him, and put them on his bed. "Do you need anything else?" I asked.

"Nope. Just to brush my teeth and have the chance to finish up in the bathroom before I go."

"Ranger will stick around while you are getting ready. I will wait downstairs for you." I walked downstairs to the sounds of Vance quickly using the washroom and brushing his teeth. A few minutes later, he came hobbling down the stairs, a look of pain in his face.

"This is ridiculous. I think I would rather go in naked", he grumbled to himself.

"That is certainly your prerogative, sir. Either way, we are taking you in now." He looked at me with a somewhat confused expression on his face. "To be dressed or not to be dressed, that is the question", I said.

"You would really take me in bare naked?" he asked.

"Absolutely. I've done it before. In fact, the first person I ever brought in was naked. He was about one hundred and two years old and needed a severe ironing."

"That was a visual I didn't need to have. In that case I will keep my clothes on."

I slowly led Vance out of the house and down to the car. We didn't bother cuffing him – he wasn't going anywhere anyway.

"Please tell me that I don't need to wear a seatbelt", he begged.

"I'm sorry. It's against the law to ride in a car without a seatbelt on", I said. "Just be glad that we aren't cuffing and shackling you. That's protocol for taking in skips, but I thought with your injuries you might prefer to be able to shift around, and perhaps put your hands under your seatbelt to loosen it off some." Vance nodded his head in thanks.

Ranger beeped the Cayenne open and I helped Vance into the back seat. I watched while he put his seatbelt on and suggested that he put his hands between the belt and his legs to take the pressure off his midsection. Then, once he was all tucked in, Ranger and I got in the car and drove Vance to the station.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

"After you leave your parents' house tonight, do you want to come back to my place?" asked Ranger as he loaded the last of my laundry baskets in the car.

"No, thanks. I am going to go to my place to take in the laundry while it is still light out, and to look after Rex before going to my parents. After my parents I am going to go home and clean Rex's cage, and clean the apartment. It hasn't been done for a while, and after I clean Rex's cage I always clean the bathroom. Then, because it's going to be an early morning tomorrow, I'm going to bed. You arranged for all staff to meet at the office at eight o'clock, right?"

"Yes. Wouldn't it make more sense for you to sleep over at my place? Then you wouldn't have to wake up so early. You could do everything you need to do at your place and then come over later."

I paused. See, that's the thing. I really wanted to stay over at Ranger's place and I wasn't sure how much I was arguing for the sake of arguing and how much I was arguing because I really thought it would be better for me to stay at my own place. Ranger, seeing that he was gaining an advantage, said "think about it. I am around the building and don't have plans."

"Thanks", I said, and gave him a kiss that let him know how close I was to changing my mind.

He pulled back. "You need to get going to your parents or you're going to be late. And you know what that means. Dried out pot roast, and all the evils of the world attributed to you being five minutes late for dinner." And that was so true. If I was even just five minutes late, my mother was listening for sirens and waiting for the phone to ring reporting me being in an accident. It wasn't advisable for anyone's mental health to be late.

I showed up – on time – to dinner. My mother was welcoming and complimentary on my dress, my hair, my makeup, and that was when I noticed it. An extra place setting at the dinner table.

"Who did you invite for dinner?" I asked.

"Miles Monowski. Do you remember him? He's older, Valerie's age. He's divorced now, and he needs a new mother for his three little children. They are the cutest things. You couldn't help but love them. I saw them at the grocery store the other day with Miles, and they were running in circles all around him. They were dressed in the same shirt, and they all looked the same. Miles said they were triplets." I shuddered. "They have to be no more than four, and I thought that having a premade family would be perfect for you. Then you wouldn't have to put up with the 'not sleeping through the night' thing, they come already toilet trained, and you don't lose your figure being pregnant." My mother's eyes were getting that golden glow about them, that special glow brought on by being a grandmother.

"Mom, I told you before and I'll tell you again. I. Do. Not. Want. Kids. No babies, no premade family, no dependents other than Rex."

My grandmother walked into the kitchen as I finished saying this. "This might be a good one. I approved this one. He has a big package, if you know what I mean. And if he has three kids at a time, he must be pretty good in bed to have had sex three times in one night."

"Having triplets doesn't mean you had sex three times in one night, Grandma. It means the egg split into three when it was in the womb. It means that you could theoretically create your whole family with one sexual incident. And could you imagine if his next partner had triplets again? He would have six kids!" A shudder ran over my body as the doorbell rang.

"Get the door, Stephanie. I'm busy", said my mother as she stood there doing nothing.

I sighed and thought longingly of the simple saneness of Ranger's apartment. I walked through from the kitchen to the front door and let in Miles and his three children. They were all dressed alike and all looked the same, and although I was introduced to them I could not keep the three of them straight.

My mother came forward with a huge smile on her face. "Miles, it's nice to see you again. I don't know if you remember Stephanie", she said, nudging me forward, "but she's my daughter. She's just a little younger than you. You might remember her from her baton twirling days."

"I was the one who twirled the baton into the tuba during one of the pep rallies. It was one of my shiniest moments in high school", I said.

My mother, tucking an errant piece of hair behind my ear, said "Stephanie always did have a wicked sense of humour. A sense of humour is so important these days, isn't it? I've always found it especially important as a parent. I didn't know you were bringing your darling children to dinner as well. I'll set three extra places at the table."

Miles, on his side, looked shell-shocked. He was trying to keep control of his children, and they were running all around the house in bratty abandon. I took pity on Miles and my own rapidly fraying nerves. "Kids!" I bellowed. "There is a toy box here filled with toys that you are allowed to play with as long as you put them back after. These toys are my nieces', and I know they won't mind sharing them with you." Like a mother duck, I led them to the toy box that was hidden in the corner of the living room.

Meanwhile, my father was trying to watch the ballgame on the TV. Miles realized what he was watching and said "hey, I love baseball. Who's winning?" With that question Miles abandoned looking after his children and left me to supervise.

I looked at my mom in horror. Things One, Two and Three ran around the living room like little cyclones. My mother smiled, a beatific expression on her face, shooing me over to the children to play with them. "Stephanie", said my mother, "why don't you look after the children and give Miles a break while I finish getting dinner on the table?"

Trapped, my father looked over at me and gave me one of his rare commiserating looks. Sometimes I think my father is oblivious to what is going on around him and he likes it that way. At other times I realize he is much more aware of what is going on than you would suspect. He just chooses not to comment on it. I guess it's a good way to be. It certainly seems to work for him.

Dinner was served as soon as the toys had been distributed over every surface in the living room. Pried from the TV, Miles became a functioning adult again, remembering that he had children. He supervised washing the children's hands and pushed their seats into the dining room table. My mom still had a glow about her as she looked at the children, and I could see her envisioning Christmas mornings with the whole family around.

"So, what happened to your wife?" asked my father. I could've kissed him. I also wanted to know, but didn't want to ask. My mother would have cut me off of dessert if I had.

"My wife died last year. She was in a car crash. That's why I moved back to Trenton, to be close to my folks so they could help with the children."

"I'm sorry to hear about your wife", said my mother. To her, Miles had just become more attractive as a potential husband for me. Her attitude screamed "see, he was a good husband. He didn't do anything to screw the marriage up. He didn't lie, cheat or do drugs. Already he's looking good."

"We were in the process of getting a divorce, so it wasn't any great loss." My mother looked deflated.

Taking pity on her, I said "what do you do for a living?"

"I am an accountant. What do you do, Stephanie?"

"I work at two jobs. I am a bounty hunter part time and a researcher part time."

"Do they pay well?"

"Marginally. As a bounty hunter you only get paid when you bring the skips in, so there is no pay stabilization with that job. You are either struggling to pay your bills at the end of the month, or you are overworked beyond believe. Right now I'm at the overworked stage. My job as a researcher pays all right, and there are benefits. I am paid by the hour and, because the company I work for is so busy, I have been working full-time hours there as well. So basically, I have two part-time jobs that I have been working full-time hours for each. This is the first evening I've had off in two months."

"Oh, it's not as bad as that. Don't listen to Stephanie. She's exaggerating", said my mother.

"No, I'm not. With being a bounty hunter you are always looking for skips, searching faces wherever you go. I took the evening off last Sunday to spend with a friend, and ended up chasing a skip down the road."

"And she gets hurt all the time at her job. She needs someone with a good job to take her away from her job as a bounty hunter."

"You get hurt?"

"Not all the time. My latest was a dog bite when I found a skip on the floor in her kitchen, dying of a heart attack. Her dog took offense as I looked after her while I waited for the ambulance."

"Not all the time? She has been shot, stabbed, beaten up, and kidnapped. Her cars have been firebombed, vandalized, stolen and exploded. Her apartment has been vandalized, firebombed and stink bombed. Can you see why I worry about her? Can you see why she needs to have someone take her away from her life?" My mother was getting a glow about her face that I suspected had nothing to do with the children in the room and everything to do with the proof of the "ginger ale" that she had in the tumbler in front of her.

"My mother and I disagree on many things, and this is one of them. In all honesty, I like my jobs and I wouldn't want to change them for anything."

"Are you chasing anyone interesting right now?" asked my grandmother with bloodthirsty relish.

"Yes. I caught someone on Friday and another today, but I still have a long list of nine skips."

"Who do you have? Is there anyone of interest that I can help you out with?" My grandmother turned to Miles. "I'm like an assistant bounty hunter. I listen to the gossip in the Burg. Then, if Stephanie needs to pick up a Burgite, I can pass on the gossip to her to help her capture the skip."

"That's fabulous. It's like a family business."

"It's funny you should say that, because the person who manages the bail bonds office is my cousin. It really is the family business in some ways." I smiled at him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my mom start to tilt just before she fell face down, ker-plop, on her dirty plate.

"What happened, Daddy?" asked Thing One.

"I don't know", he replied.

"She just worked really hard getting dinner ready tonight and is really tired. She fell asleep. I'm going to take her to bed now", I said. "That seems like a good place for a tired person to go, don't you think?"

Thing One, Thing Two and Thing Three all nodded their heads solemnly.

"Do you need help?" asked Miles.

When I shook my head no and thanked him, Miles resumed eating his dinner. "Okay then. Could you please pass the carrots before you take your mom upstairs?"

* * *

Grandma and I cleaned up the kitchen after Miles and his three Things went home. "All in all, not a bad evening", said my grandmother.

"The only thing good I can say about the evening is that Miles didn't run away screaming, and the dessert was good." And it was. A homemade coconut cream pie, I enjoyed the dessert even though Thing Two thought that it made an excellent medium for finger painting, using the tablecloth as her canvas. I did a full body shudder again. "Why does mom insist that I want children? I really don't. I love Val's kids because they are hers, but I don't love to be with them. I like them better from afar, hearing stories about them rather than interacting with them. I am just not a kid-oriented person. Val? She's like Mom. She loves kids, all kids, and being a mother is important to her. I would be a terrible mother because they would not be important to me."

"I know. Your mother just gets so much pleasure out of you and Val, and now Albert and the kids as well, that she wants to share that type of pleasure with you. She just wants you to be happy, and she thinks kids will make you happy."

"But they won't. I'm happy the way I am."

"Being single? Do you have anyone in your life right now?"

"Yes, there is someone, but we're going slowly. I went fast with Dickie, and then with Joe, and look where those relationships ended up. I want to go slow this time, Grandma. I don't want to take the chance this will get screwed up as well."

"Your relationship with Dickie was doomed from the beginning. I saw it, but didn't know how to tell you when you seemed so happy. I thought I would let it ride and hope I was wrong. Morelli was a keeper though. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong with the two of you."

"It was his lack of support. Sure, he supported me in many things, but he did not support me in my job and that is a big and important area of my life. I couldn't take him yelling at me anymore when things went wrong. I didn't yell at him when things went wrong, so I don't understand why he yelled at me."

"Maybe your mother is right and you should get a new job. If someone cares about you, they are going to be worried and upset when you put yourself in danger."

"This new guy knows about my job and is willing to accept me for who I am, and for what I do. He is willing to support me in all my choices."

"Personally, I always envisioned you settling down with Ranger. He had a good package and I bet he's good in bed." I could feel my face turn red. "That's it, isn't it? Ranger is your new guy."

"We aren't telling anyone yet, so please keep this on the QT. I want there to be a little space between breaking up with Morelli and going out with Ranger for a couple of reasons. For one, I think it is only fair to Morelli rather than have everyone know that I immediately jumped into bed with someone else. And secondly, I want this more than I think I have ever wanted someone before. And that scares me. He is ready to start a relationship, and that scares me. I'm worried about what happens with our friendship if things go belly-up, and that scares me. I'm just a whole pile of being scared and I don't know what to do about it."

"Have you slept with him?"

"Yes."

"How was it?"

"Magical."

"That's something good then. Do you love him?"

"Yes. I'm just not sure if I love him in the way I need to love someone in order to have a successful relationship. I've never had a truly successful relationship before, so I don't have anything to compare to."

"Look, sweetheart, sometimes you have to jump in with both feet, even if it scares you. I know you have been hurt in the past. Protect yourself as much as you can but remember, sometimes to be truly happy you have to jump." I gave her a big hug. "Now, you don't need to hang around here. Go see your man." I kissed her on the cheek and, saying goodbye to my father, left for my apartment.

* * *

I phoned Ranger. "Do you want some company tonight?" I asked.

"I thought you'd never ask. How did it go with your family?"

"It was a good thing you didn't come. It was a train wreck of an evening. My mother invited a potential spouse for me, and although the kids hadn't been invited he came with his four-year old triplets. I couldn't tell them apart and quite honestly, Things One, Two and Three were terrible. I have never met brattier kids. The father, Miles, abandoned me with the children to watch a ballgame with my dad while my mother and grandmother finished getting dinner ready. My mom had already married me off to him in her head, and was planning out Christmas activities that she could do with the kids. Then, my mother got shit-faced during dinner – sometime around the discussion about my job and how I was refusing to quit – and she fell face down on her dirty plate. I had to tell the Things that my mother had fallen asleep. We had a most excellent coconut cream pie for dessert, which one of the Things used to finger paint all over my mother's tablecloth. When we finally got Miles and the Things to go home, I cleaned up the kitchen with my grandmother. I was so thrown off from Miles that I told my grandmother that I was seeing someone. She guessed that it was you. You will be pleased to know that she was supportive. She said that you had a good package and she thought you had the potential to satisfy me in bed. So, as you can hear, a train wreck of an evening. How was your evening?"

"It wasn't as eventful as yours. I did telephone interviews with each of the potential applicants that Eduardo and Miguel found for me, and I was impressed with each of them. I have scheduled face-to-face interviews with Tank and myself for later this week. Two of the applicants I will be flying in from other parts of the US. It is an expensive way to interview but, if it works out, it will be well worth it. I also talked with my sister, Maria. She and Alex, her husband, are flying up for the weekend next weekend, I think partly to meet you. Would you be available to get together with my family for dinner on the Saturday? I wouldn't subject you to my family so soon after meeting them normally, it is just that we have to take advantage of Maria being here while she's in Newark. If you don't want to, perhaps I can take you with me when I fly down to Miami the next time and introduce you then. She's feeling a little left out that she hasn't yet met you."

"That's fine. I can be available."

"I know you were nervous last time, but everybody loved you which is why Maria wants to meet you so badly. Don't worry. Maria will love you as well."

"They didn't mind that I ended the evening by chasing a skip down the street and then walking back all bloody from skinned knees?"

"Do you know how many scrapes I got into as a child? I think that cemented their love for you. I think that's when they decided you were the perfect spouse for me."

"Oh, no. You had one of those conversations as well?"

"Yes. How did your conversation go?"

"I spoke with my grandmother, as I told you. I told her I was scared to get involved again in another relationship and that I was scared as to what would happen to our friendship if the relationship went belly-up. She told me that sometimes you have to jump in with both feet in order to be truly happy. As I said earlier, she was supportive."

"Where was your mother in all this?"

"She was upstairs passed out. What about your conversation?"

"Fairly similar, actually. Maria said that I was always a bit of a daredevil, and I needed someone who would be able to support me in what essentially is a dangerous business. She also said that I needed someone who I could be open with, and the fact that you knew about me jacking the car when I was a teenager seemed to mean something to the family. It seemed to mean to them that you accepted me, warts and all. She said I found it difficult to share my life with others and it seemed like I was able to share with you. And she said the family thinks you understand me in ways that Rachel never could. So, she also was positive. I can only imagine how much more positive she'll be once she meets you."

"I hope so."

"Don't worry. Now, how soon do you think you can be here?"

"Soon. I just have to pack some clothes. I am going to clean Rex's cage and do the cleaning another day."

"Can you pack for a few days?"

"You know how you were unsettled after doing that last rescue mission, and you just needed a chance to settle?"

"Yes."

"Tonight is my baby step and then I need a chance to settle. I will stay the one night and, if I change my mind, will come back to my place and pick up more clothes for another night."

"I will take whatever baby steps you are willing to make. I'll see you soon, Babe."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

The next morning Ranger kissed me awake at seven o'clock. "We're meeting at eight with the team, Babe, so you need to get up and moving." I think I growled at him as I rolled over and burrowed more deeply in the covers. "Babe", he said with an exasperated laugh. He pulled back the covers. I opened my eyes in a slitty glare. "I have coffee."

"Bless you." I sat up and groggily tried to open my eyes all the way. My brain was telling my eyes to open, but my body was not cooperating. Ranger tucked my hair out of my face and pressed the coffee cup into my hands. I sat there for a minute, just breathing in, letting the smell of the coffee start waking me up. After a minute, I took a sip and, letting the coffee kick start my day, opened my eyes fully. "Mmm", I said, savouring the flavour of the coffee.

"Better?" asked Ranger, a smile on his face.

"Much, thank you." I drank half of my coffee down, then got out of bed. Ranger caught me and pulled me onto his lap.

"I like you when you are all snuggly like this", he said, nuzzling my neck.

"When I haven't brushed my teeth or used mouthwash? You're insane."

Ranger laughed. "I am nuzzling your neck, remember?"

I mock hit him on the arm. "Let me up. I need to go to the bathroom."

Ranger gave me a kiss. "You taste like coffee."

"I still have to go to the bathroom and, unless you want a wet lap, I would advise you to let me go." Laughing, Ranger let me go. I escaped to the bathroom to brush my teeth. "Do I have time for a shower?" I called out from the bathroom.

"A quick one. Ella is going to be up with breakfast in fifteen minutes."

I popped in the shower and shampooed, conditioned, washed and shaved in under twelve minutes. I was flying. I got out of the shower smelling of Ranger's signature Bulgari Green scent and my shampoo and conditioner, and slathered on Bulgari Green body lotion. I combed the tangles out of my wet hair and moisturized my face, finishing just as Ella came into the apartment and left our breakfast for us.

I came out of the bathroom, borrowed Ranger's housecoat, and walked through to the breakfast bar as Ranger was dishing out bowls of fruit and plates of scrambled eggs, ham and toast. He poured the two of us a fresh cup of coffee, doctoring mine with cream, as I got out cutlery, a jug of juice, and two glasses. Ranger and I sat down and started to eat.

"Do you have any special instructions that I need to give the staff for today?"

"Not that I can think of."

"How do you envision a capture going down?"

"I envision that I'll show up, bottle of Jack in hand, and meet up with the Rangeman crew. I've a signatory sheet for the felon to sign, and I'm going to ask for photo ID at the same time. Then, when the felon reaches for the bottle, I envision one of the Rangeman staffers snapping on cuffs. I've bought nine bottles of Jack, as I don't think it's fair to catch them and not give them the bottle. I think that could result in anger and violent behaviour. I'll then let the Rangeman staff lead the felon away while I shut down the house and take care of anything I need to take care of. When I'm leaving for the next house, I'll call the Rangeman team assigned to the next house and let them know I'm coming and will meet them there."

"Is there anything you need from us to get the job done?"

"I'll need a copy of Tank's schedule as to who I'll be meeting at each location, as well as a list of contact numbers for each of the Rangeman teams. I already have the bottles of Jack in the car as well as the signatory paperwork on a clipboard."

"I've called in the entire capture team for the briefing this morning. They'll be in the boardroom at eight. We can go over everything with them, then let the staff doing the afternoon captures go off shift."

"Also, just an idea, I was thinking of billing Rangeman for the hours that I have worked on each of the captures as well as setting up the day today, then giving the entire capture fee to you. It'll be a significant piece of cash since there are so many people to capture. I think it's only fair to Rangeman to do it that way."

"No, we're not going to bill it like that. Rangeman's standard sixty/forty split is acceptable, with forty for you and sixty for us."

"This is requiring more time and more people than a standard sixty/forty split. I will accept eighty/twenty if you insist on doing it that way."

"How about we compromise at sixty-five/thirty-five?"

"That's not a compromise. Seventy/thirty and that is as low as I am willing to go."

"Deal. I'm not happy with it, but that's a deal. Remember, you have put a lot of time and energy into this capture. I would hate to see you not rewarded for it."

I shook my head. "You're too good to me."

"I can be even better tonight. Will you stay over?"

"I'm not sure. I may be pretty tired", I said with a smile.

"I'm good with sleeping as well." And that was the thing with Ranger compared to Morelli and The Dick. They were never satisfied with just sleeping, and I knew that Ranger meant it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Hal and Calvin were my first Rangeman support team. I met them outside the door of Shane O'Shaunessy's house at nine o'clock with a bottle of Jack, decorated with a gold and black bow on it, and a clipboard in my hand. They stood there with their utility belts on. "You're my test pilot. I forgot to mention in the staff meeting this morning that we're going to have to go into the takedown naked so that we don't tip the skip off", I said. "Just bring your cuffs. Tuck them into your back pocket and let's go." I sent a text to Ranger. _"Remind everyone that we are doing the takedown unaccessorized."_

Hal, Calvin and I walked up to O'Shaunessy's door and I rang the doorbell. A few minutes later a smallish man, slight in stature and young in looks opened the door. "Hello", I said, "we are here to see Shane O'Shaunessy?"

"I'm Shane."

"I'm Stephanie, and I'm here on the Jug of Jack's promotion. I would like to see some photo ID so that I can verify that you are Shane, and then I need you to sign the paperwork in order to make everything legal. When you've signed the paperwork, I will give you the jug. Simple, right?"

"Sure." Shane looked like I'd just made his day.

I let him go and get his wallet, and watched him take out his photo ID as he walked back to the front door. I checked his ID and wrote down his driver's license. I then passed the clipboard over to him and pointed out where he was supposed to sign. He did so, looking very pleased with himself. I took the clipboard back from him and, as I handed the bottle of Jack to him, Hal whipped out his cuffs and cuffed one of his wrists. He spun him around, grabbed hold of his other wrist, and cuffed him behind his back.

"What the fuck?" said O'Shaunessy.

"Bond enforcement. We're here representing your bonding agent. You missed your court date and you need to go into the precinct to reschedule", I said.

"But I thought you were here from Jack Daniel's!"

"That was just a ruse."

"Do I get to keep the jug?"

"You do. You should be bonded out quickly, and you'll be able to come back to enjoy the whiskey this afternoon."

"That's okay then. I'm due at work at one o'clock. Do you think I'll be back in time, or should I phone in sick?"

"You should be back in time, but just in case I would phone in sick. Calvin, would you please secure the house while Shane calls into work?"

I took out my phone and dialed in the number that Shane told me. I then held the phone to his ear as he faked a sore throat and a sleep befuddled state. His boss said that she wished him better, and I hung up the phone for him. "Thanks. I've only been working at this job for two weeks. That's the reason I missed my court date in the first place. I didn't want to take time off my job when I'd only just started."

"That makes sense, but you can't avoid responsibility for forever." I put the jug of Jack on the front hall table, Calvin grabbed Shane's wallet and keys and finished locking up the house. Hal escorted Shane to the Rangeman vehicle and strapped Shane into the car. I went to my car and found my apprehension papers for Shane and gave them to Calvin. "That was smooth, guys. Hopefully they'll all go as smoothly today. Thank you for your help."

"Good luck", said Calvin as they were getting into the car.

I poked my head into the car. "I am going to call Vinnie to get him to come to the precinct and rebond you out as soon as possible. I am sorry for tricking you, but we weren't having any luck finding you. Next time, do yourself a favour and just come in for your court date. You're making yourself look bad by avoiding responsibility."

I watched the Rangeman team drive away, then sat in my car to write a text to Ranger. _"One down, eight to go. It was smooth sailing. The felon was more interested in whether he was going to keep the jug of Jack or not. Am on the way to Lucas Cooper's house. See you there."_

* * *

Ranger and Logan were my next partners. I met them at Ranger's car at ten to ten. Ranger looked relaxed; Logan looked energized and excited. "Is this your first takedown?" I asked.

"Yes. I've just done surveillance so far."

"Hopefully this one will go as smoothly as the last. Follow Ranger's lead and I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I can't wait to get that sonofabitch."

"Not all felons are bad people. Some have just made bad choices and have been led into bad situations or had bad things happen to them. There are as many reasons for being a felon as there are felons. You will learn in this job to not judge. We are going after Lucas Cooper right now. He is wanted for selling drugs by cold-calling people to see if they were interested. Unfortunately for him, one of the people that he called was a police officer."

"Who did he call?" asked Ranger.

I smiled. "Morelli."

Ranger let out a snort. "Poor, misguided soul."

"I don't get it. Who's Morelli?" asked Logan.

"Morelli is a cop who works Crimes Against Persons and is a former vice cop", I said.

"He also happens to be Stephanie's ex-boyfriend", said Ranger.

"Are you ready, guys? It's ten o'clock." I walked back to my car and got the bottle of Jack from the backseat, and picked up the clipboard of signatures.

"The ribbon is a nice touch, Babe."

"Thanks. I thought it made it look more authentic."

The three of us walked into the apartment building. The elevator was broken. "Shit", I said under my breath. Ranger looked like he was thinking about smiling as he started for the stairs and held the door open for Logan and myself. He took the jug of Jack away from me as I passed him. Starting up the stairs to the fifth floor, I needed to take a break by the time I got to the third. By the fourth floor I was huffing and puffing and by the fifth floor I was glad that there weren't any more stairs. My legs felt rubbery and as if they were going to fall off.

"You okay there, Babe?" Ranger paused at the top of the stairs to give me a chance to recover.

"I'll survive", I wheezed out. I looked at Ranger and Logan, and neither of them were out of breath. "Show-offs. You know, it isn't natural to not be out of breath after climbing five flights of stairs."

"You are just out of shape, Babe", said Logan. Ranger turned all squinty-eyed and stared at him. I also turned still.

"You are not allowed to call me 'Babe'", I said softly but menacingly. "Ranger is the only one who may call me Babe. You may call me Stephanie."

"I'm sorry. I just thought that Babe was a staff nickname for you."

"No, it's not."

"Oh." He looked back and forth between Ranger's unhappy face and my unhappy face, and the other shoe dropped. "O-o-o-oh. Gotcha. Won't make that mistake again."

"See that you don't", said Ranger.

I had sufficiently regained my breath by this point, so Ranger led me down the hall to Cooper's apartment. I rang the doorbell and waited. I had to ring the doorbell two more times before I heard shuffling on the other side of the door. I saw an eye at the peeper, and then there was silence. I held up the bottle of Jack and waited. Finally, a middle-aged woman, looking washed out and worn down by life's cares, answered the door. "What can I do you for?" she asked in a smoke-husky voice.

"We are here on the Jug of Jack's promotion for Lucas Cooper. He said he would be here between ten and eleven to receive his free bottle of Jack. Is he here right now?"

"No, he isn't. He's out selling. He doesn't even drink. He said he was interested in getting a free bottle of Jack?"

"That's what he said. He said his old woman likes it, and he was going to get it for her."

"Aaww. He's the best son, ever."

"I'm sure that he is, ma'am. Do you know when he's going to be home again?"

"No, I don't. He left before I got up this morning, so I haven't spoken with him today. Can I sign for it?"

"No, I'm sorry, ma'am. My instructions are that Lucas is the only person who can sign for it."

"Oh." Mrs. Cooper sounded deflated.

"We will come back later on today, ma'am, and will see if Lucas is home then."

I left the apartment, Ranger still carrying the bottle, frustrated because the takedown had not occurred. I was even more frustrated as it meant that I was likely going to have to climb the stairs at least once more again. As we walked down the steps Logan opened his mouth to speak. "Not a word", I said to him, "until we are in the privacy of our car." We walked out to Ranger's car and all got in, Logan playing it smart and getting in the backseat this time. I turned to the guys. "This puts a crimp in our plans."

"But we knew this could happen, Babe. That's why we have separate teams on each capture."

"I know. It's just that the first one went so smoothly."

"How do you want to handle this?"

"The only way we can. Sit here for the next hour and do surveillance. Then, if we cannot see him during that hour, I am going to have to leave you here and go to the next felon. Do you have time today to do a stakeout?" I asked Ranger.

"I do. I booked the entire day off to do captures today."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

As I have said before, surveillance with Ranger is a peaceful process. There is no unnecessary discussion. It gave me a chance to catch up on deleting phone messages off my phone, and I filed my nails while I also had the time. "Do you also have nail polish in there?" asked Ranger, watching me file my nails.

"Smart-ass. I carry a nail file because it is a multi-purpose tool. I can use it to file my nails, but I can also use it to stab someone with."

"Dangerous woman with a nail file?"

"Don't knock it. I don't think you would want your eyes taken out with it."

Ranger shuddered. "You're right. I wouldn't want my eyes taken out by it. I wouldn't want my eyes taken out by anything, come to think of it."

I knocked the nail dust off my shirt as I finished filing my nails. I looked up and saw Lucas enter the building. "That's him", I said, pointing out Lucas as he disappeared from sight. "Let's give him a minute to get up to his apartment so that it doesn't look like we were staking him out, then follow him up." We waited for a few minutes then entered the building. I looked towards the staircase and sighed.

Ranger looked at me, again thinking about smiling. "Ten percent, Babe. It's worth ten percent." I gave him a dirty look and started up the stairs.

"Sometimes I think ten percent just isn't enough", I grumbled as I climbed the stairs. Ranger smiled a half-smile.

At the top of the stairs Ranger stopped to give me a chance to catch my breath. "How is your leg feeling now?" he asked.

"It still pulls a bit, but it is a lot better. I have to go back to the doctor's tomorrow to get the stitches out."

"Have you made an appointment yet?"

"No, I forgot."

"I'll make an appointment this afternoon for you. Does anytime work for you tomorrow?" I nodded my head. "I'll let you know when I can get you in, and I'll take you tomorrow." Seeing that I had caught my breath, Ranger led me down the hall to the Cooper residence again.

I rang the doorbell. Lucas answered. "Hi, I am Stephanie from the Jack Daniel's company, and I am here to see Lucas Cooper."

"You mean this is real?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"No one gives away free booze."

"Are you Lucas Cooper?"

"Yes, I am."

"I need to see some photo ID, and I need to get your signature on this piece of paper before I hand over the Jack's."

Lucas disappeared into the living room. "Just a minute", he called out, "I have to get my wallet." He came back a couple of minutes later with his ID. His mother followed him, her eyes sparkling with the thought of free whiskey.

I took the ID from him and wrote down his driver's licence number. Then I handed the form over to Lucas to sign. As he finished signing, Ranger whipped out his cuffs and snapped one around Lucas's wrist. He whipped Lucas around and snapped the other cuff on the other wrist behind Lucas's back. "Bond enforcement", said Ranger quietly.

"What the hell?" exclaimed Lucas. "What are you doing? I was just getting the whiskey for my mother. I know I'm too young to drink. I wasn't planning on drinking it myself."

"This isn't about the whiskey", I said. "You were due in court a few days ago and you missed your court date. We have to take you in to reschedule. You'll probably be out again by the end of the day. It isn't a big thing. We just offered you the booze so that you would be here when we showed up to pick you up."

"I thought free booze was too good to be true", he said, Ranger leading him out the door.

"It pays to question things, that is for sure", said Logan. "If something seems too good to be true, it probably is."

"Does this mean there's no free whiskey?" asked Lucas's mother.

"No, we're going to leave the jug of Jack's here anyway as an apology for tricking you." I handed the bottle over to his mother and apologized for interrupting her day.

"No problem", she said as she opened the bottle and took a swig. "I would be interrupted like that anytime for free booze."

I walked down the stairs and met up with Ranger as he was sitting Lucas in the backseat of his car. "Good one, Babe. You have an hour for lunch after your next capture. See you at the office?"

* * *

Ramon and Jorge were waiting at the curb in their car when I drove up and parked my car behind them. We were on Stark Street. Stark ran the gamut from bad to very bad, and we were in the middle of it. I parked my car and put my Club on the steering wheel before getting out and meeting up with the two Rangeman men. Ramon and Jorge got out of their car and met with me on the cracked sidewalk. I apologized for being late. "Our last appointment was running late as the person wasn't there when we showed up and we had to wait for him to come."

"No problem, chica."

I opened up my trunk and removed a bottle and the clipboard. Then, checking my instructions, I looked at the rooming house and said "she's on the second floor". We entered the house and were met by the landlady. She was frantically scrubbing the steps with a toothbrush. The smell of lemon cleaner was strong, and I didn't want to walk on her freshly washed stairs. "Excuse me, ma'am, but we are here from the Jack Daniel's company to meet with Crystal Zoli. Do you know if she's in?"

"Yes, she is. Did she win anything? Because she's a month behind in paying me rent and I'd like the money."

"She won a free jug of Jack's in a special promotion, our Jugs of Jack's promotional offer. I need to go up to see her, and unfortunately I have to walk on your nice clean stairs. Is that all right?" I asked.

"That's fine", she said, looking like it was anything other than fine.

"Let's wipe our shoes off as best as we can on the carpet out here", I said to the Rangeman team. "It's a good thing the weather outside isn't mucky and that only dust is coming in on our shoes." We started up the stairs, carefully avoiding the wet puddles of washing water.

I knocked on the door the landlady had indicated, and when Crystal called out to invite us in, I opened the door.

"I'm here for the Jug of Jack's promotion, where we're handing out free bottles of Jack in exchange for your review of the new blend. I need to see your driver's licence in order to give this bottle to you."

"I don't have a driver's licence."

"Do you have any sort of photo ID to prove that you are Crystal Zoli? I don't care if it is a library card. I just want a photo ID."

Crystal flipped through her wallet. "Here is my student ID. Will that do?"

"Absolutely." I looked at her college ID. "What are you going to school for?" I asked.

"Criminology", she said.

I wrote down her ID information and had her sign the form. Then, I placed the jug on the desk near her bed. "We are actually here as bond enforcement agents. We are here to escort you into the police station so that you can get rescheduled." I saw her looking at the jug. "You get to keep the jug as an apology for tricking you."

"Okay." She held her hands behind her back and stood still while Ramon put on the restraints.

"I have to ask, if you are studying criminology in school and obviously believe in the criminal system, why were you arrested for solicitation?"

"I wrote my dissertation on the treatment of prostitutes in society. The best way to get information is to dress like a hooker, talk like a hooker, walk like a hooker, and both experience a hooker's life as well as talk to other hookers to hear about their experiences. I couldn't go to court on the day that I was assigned because that was when I was giving my doctorate dissertation. I 'm happy to go to court now, though."

"This is more fodder for your dissertation, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yes, it is."

"Okay. I'll leave the bottle on your desk for you to return to this evening, once you are rescheduled."

"Thank you."

"No problem." I picked up Crystal's keys and her purse, and locked the door behind us. Then I led the two men and Crystal down the clean stairs and out the front door, apologizing again to the hard-working landlady.

"Does she have obsessive-compulsive disorder?" I asked Crystal as we walked down the sidewalk to the car.

"I think she must. She has a thing about clean floors and goes absolutely nuts during the winter. She washes the floors at least once per day. Since she is equally as obsessive about the cleanliness of the bathroom, I don't mind."

"Oh, oh", said Jorge.

"What?" I asked. I looked up to see the Rangeman vehicle, and no Stephanie vehicle. Instead, where my car had been parked was my steering wheel, the Club still attached. I looked at Jorge and Ramon. They both had smiles a mile wide on their faces. "This isn't funny, guys."

"No, ma'am", said Jorge, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the smile off his face.

"Why is it always my car? Compared to the Rangeman vehicle, mine is an old hunk of junk. Why did my car get jacked while yours did not?"

"I don't know, Steph", said Ramon. "Do you want to call it in, or do you want me to?"

"I'll call it in, thanks." I called the control room, getting Hal on the line. "Hi, Hal, I am on Stark Street right now, and all I have left of my car is my steering wheel."

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, I am fine. I'm with Ramon and Jorge and our skip right now, and I have no car."

"I've located your car on the screen. It's very close to where you're standing. If you want, you can wait in the Rangeman vehicle with your skip and Ramon and Jorge will steal your car back for you."

"That sounds like a good idea, thanks."

"I'll route the car's location to Ramon's and Jorge's phones."

"Thanks, Hal. I owe you one." I got off the phone and told Ramon and Jorge what Hal had suggested that they do.

"Hot damn! This is a good day", said Ramon. "I get to play in the Jug of Jack's game, and I get to steal a car. It doesn't get much better than this!" Their phones pinged with the location of my car. Ramon and Jorge took the Club off my steering wheel, gave me the keys to their car, and set off down the street to pick up mine.

"I'm going to take off your cuffs and let you get comfortable in the backseat", I said as I uncuffed her. "This could be a long wait, and it is too hot to be restrained all that time. I'm just going to trust that you're not going to try to escape. If you do, we'll just capture you again and we won't be so gentle a second time. With your defence, that you were doing research, you should get a minor sentence. Perhaps even just community time. It just looks bad if you don't go into court when you're supposed to though, so you may want to show up the next time."

"You work as a bounty hunter, is that right?"

"That is one of my jobs. I work two. I am also the researcher for Rangeman, a private security company."

"What do you do as a researcher?"

"You review information on different people and corporations to determine their suitability to take them on as clients – we won't accept clients who have a criminal past – or to help out existing clients, for example by vetting potential employees."

"And as a bounty hunter you pick up those who have skipped bail?"

"Yes, I do. We don't normally do it by offering free alcohol, but Vinnie has overextended himself and no one is coming in for their court date. Which means he is out a lot of money until everyone is brought into court. This was our solution to capture a lot of people in a very short period of time."

"It's a good idea. I didn't even suspect that it was anything other than a promotion."

I looked in the rearview mirror as I saw my car drive up and park behind me. "Good luck with your defence", I told Crystal as I got out of the car. I walked over to mine as Ramon and Jorge unfolded themselves from the car.

"They hadn't yet opened up the trunk when we got there, so the bottles are still in there", said Ramon.

"Were there any fatalities?" I asked.

"No, although there are some wet pants."

"Wet pants?"

"Yeah, twice. When Jorge threatened them with his gun they were full of swagger. When he shot the ground an inch away from the head honcho's foot, they started getting upset. And when Jorge told them that the next shot was going to be at their balls and he sighted up the leader again, all attention was focused on him. That was when they wet their pants. Then they rediscovered their swagger and started to crowd him out. Meanwhile, while he was diverting attention, I reattached your steering wheel using the tools that they had left in the front seat, put their tools on the ground because I didn't want to steal them, and started your car. I rolled your car into the group, right up beside Jorge, and leaned on the horn. They all jumped and that was when they wet their pants a second time. Jorge got in the car while they were all looking at me. I started inching forward and, when they wouldn't move, I told them that I was going to run over the first person that stood in front of the car. They didn't believe me, so I gunned it forward a foot and Jorge took out his gun again. He sighted up the leader and shot him in the thigh. Don't worry. It was just a little flesh wound. I was able to drive around them when they all came after your car with guns. I don't think your car was hit though." He walked around the car inspecting it. "Yup, no hits", he said with great satisfaction.

I felt a little lightheaded. "Thank you for getting my car back. I appreciate the effort, even if you had to shoot someone."

"No problem. That was fun!" said Jorge.

I started to laugh. "You definitely have a different idea of fun than I have." I shook my head and reached out my hands for my keys. "I left the apprehension papers on the front seat of the car. I uncuffed Crystal. I didn't think she was a runner. She's still in the car."

"Uh, Steph, there's no one in the car", said Ramon.

My head whipped around to look. The passenger door was open and Crystal was no longer in the car. I turned to look at the house in time to see Crystal re-entering. "One of you, stay with the cars and watch the house", I said as I ran up to the house. Jorge and I entered, running past the landlady who was still cleaning the steps, and raced up the stairs. We got to Crystal's door and pounded on it.

"Go away", she said. I could hear the sound of her bedroom window opening up.

"Go and wait outside her bedroom window", I whispered to Jorge. "Crystal, it's Stephanie. You really do not want to do this. If you avoid court, it's going to look bad for you. It's only going to result in a stiffer sentence when I bring you in, and I'll bring you in eventually. Things will go a lot smoother for you if you come in voluntarily."

"That's what I want to do. I want to go to the police station myself and give myself up, explaining that I couldn't come in when I was supposed to and that I want to come in now."

"It doesn't work that way. You signed the agreement with Vincent Plum bail bonds office that said we were allowed to bring you in if you didn't come into court when you were supposed to. You did not come into court and, no matter how good your reason is, your signed contract says that you're supposed to be brought into court by me. That's why I am here, and that's why you need to come with me."

I heard an "eek" on the other side of the door and a thump before it was all silent again. Seconds later, Jorge opened the door with Crystal cuffed and ready to go to jail. She was crying. "I just wanted to go to jail myself. I didn't want to be brought in by a bounty hunter. How is this going to look on my job applications when I'm applying for jobs in the criminology field? Can't you just drive me to the station and let me turn myself in? You can watch me do it if you want."

"Thank you for the offer, and I would like to accommodate you. However, if we do it your way I don't get paid, and since I need to pay Rangeman no matter what happens, this means I'll be out of pocket. That's not how this day is going to go." Technically, I could have done it her way and I wouldn't have had to pay Rangeman, but I was mad at her. I was angry she was infringing on my lunch period but, more importantly, I was angry that she had made me look incompetent in front of Rangeman staff. "If you go to court now and explain why you were doing what you were doing, I suspect you won't even get a record. However, if you don't go in now, all bets are off as to what will happen." Jorge led her out of her room and I took her key and purse off her dresser. I closed and locked the window, then shut and locked the door.

Following Jorge and Crystal to the car, I heard Ramon say "Damn. I missed the fun."

"You can't have it all, I guess. You are going to have to settle with carjacking today", I said with a smile. "Guys, as I was saying initially, the apprehension papers are in the front seat. I was wrong about Crystal not being a runner. Keep her cuffed and shackled. I don't want to lose her again." Ramon hustled over to the rear of the vehicle and took out a set of shackles.

As Ramon put the shackles on her, Crystal cried harder. "Can't you take a little pity on me? I promise I'll be good."

"I'm sorry. I already took pity on you today and you ran away from us. I'm not going to take another chance on you getting away again. I don't have the time to spend chasing you down today."

"I promise I'll be good, I swear!"

"No. I'm sorry, but no."

"You aren't sorry. You aren't sorry at all."

"You know, you're right. I'm not sorry. Take her away, guys. I am going back to the office to grab some lunch before catching our next skip at one o'clock. Thanks for your help. Oh, and if she tries to escape again? Shoot her." I turned around and walked back to my car, got in, and drove away.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

I called Ranger from the car on my way into the office. "Hi. I'm running a little late, but will be there in ten minutes. Would you mind grabbing me something from the break room for lunch? I don't want to be late for the afternoon appointments."

"Sure. I heard about your car."

"Ramon and Jorge stole it back from me, and they only had to shoot one person."

"Any fatalities?"

"No, they said it was just a flesh wound. But then, while I was talking to them, our skip got away. My fault, as she seemed so reasonable I took the cuffs off her while we waited for Ramon and Jorge to come back with my car."

"How did you get her back?"

"She escaped into her room in the rooming house where she lived. As I was talking to her I heard her open her window. I told Jorge to go and wait outside the window, thinking that she would try to make a run for it. Jorge did one better and climbed up, went through her window, and cuffed her before she got over the surprise of finding someone coming through her window. She was crying and begging to be released as we walked her back down to the car. I felt sorry for her, but I'm mad at her at the same time."

"I'm glad you got both your car and your skip back. Anything in particular you want from the break room?"

"A chocolate bar?"

"Smart ass". Ranger thinks dessert is the devil's work and does not allow it to be stocked in the Rangeman break room. I have a different opinion. I think he's nuts.

* * *

I got to the Rangeman facility and drove into the underground parking lot. I parked the car and opened the trunk just to make sure the bottles of Jack were still there. They were, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't want to have to take the time to make another shopping trip to buy more jugs. Besides, I had run out of ribbon for the bows.

I got off the elevator at the fifth floor and saw many of the men designated for the capture teams. Some of the men were still off shift, waiting for their three o'clock start. "Good going, Steph", said Hal. "This is working well."

"Yeah, chica", said Eduardo. "This was a good idea. I'm looking forward to my turn this afternoon."

"It was working well until the last one. I screwed up and we almost lost our skip."

"But the important part", said Ranger as he came through, "is that you were able to get her back safely and with everyone in one piece. Don't reflect on what might have happened. Celebrate what did."

"Why are you all here?" I asked the group.

"We wanted to be in on the fun. I didn't want to wait all the way until my chance comes up this afternoon", said Manuel. "How many more do you have left?"

"Five."

"Did you really shackle her?" asked Calvin with a smile.

"We did. She really ticked me off by trying to get away."

"I would have shackled her as well", said Ranger.

"The difference between you and me, though, is that you wouldn't have lost her in the first place."

"I don't know. I've made mistakes like that in my time as well. The important thing is that you got her back."

He led me to his conference table in his office. On it were two sandwiches, a couple of bowls of cream of asparagus soup, soda crackers for the soup, two containers of cut fruit, and two cups of coffee, one of which had cream in it. I sat down and smiled. "You chose well. This looks great."

"In the folder on the table are your body receipts for the first two captures. Do you want to leave them here?"

"Yes. I'll leave them here until I have them all collected." I ate a mouthful of my sandwich and sighed. "I can't believe she got away from me. I'm usually so good at reading the skips and knowing if I need to cuff and/or shackle them. I really missed this time."

"Don't worry about it. What was she in for?"

"Solicitation. She's a criminology student and was doing some research for her dissertation. She just had the misfortune of being picked up. She said she ran away from us because she wanted to turn herself in rather than be taken in by a bounty hunter. And if she had said that to me initially, I might have driven her to the station and watched her do it. But I got angry when she ran away."

"Now that your initial anger has died away, would you do anything differently?"

I thought for a minute. "No, probably not. I gave her a chance and treated her better than many of my skips, and she blew it. I might not have shackled her if I hadn't been angry, but I might have as well. Getting arrested isn't a lark, and she needs to be taught a lesson. As long as she can still get a job in the criminology field, the lesson will stand her well."

"Then that's what you have to hang onto, that you wouldn't have done it any differently. It wasn't your mistake that messed up the capture; it was hers."

"Thanks." I ate for a moment, finishing off my soup. "Who are the capture teams this afternoon?"

"Tank and Alvin…"

"Alvin?"

"Another new recruit. This guy was military police for a few years and has recently come to us. He looks promising, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. You also have Eduardo and Miguel, Manuel and Ethan, Hector and Jose, and I will be flying solo with you for the last one."

"That sounds great."

"And after we take in our final capture, we can go out to dinner. I phoned, and the Mexican restaurant is open until eleven. We should have plenty of time to get there before the kitchen closes."

"I'm looking forward to it already."

"I've also made an appointment at the doctor's to get your sutures out. Your appointment is for one in the afternoon. That was all he had available, so I hope that time is all right with you."

"That works for me. All I have to do tomorrow on the essential list is take in my body receipts to get cheques signed, and to chase down the leads on Nyetta." I stood up, putting my garbage into the trash can and picking up my dirty cutlery and crockery to take back to the break room. "I'm sure that Sales has generated some requests as well."

"I have some more research requests for you, too." He stood up and took the dirty dishware out of my hands and put it on the table. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a deep kiss. He broke away and said "are you coming back in for a snack at five o'clock?"

"I was planning on it."

"Great! I'll see you then." I picked up my dirty dishware and Ranger said "leave it. If you don't get moving, you're going to be late for your next capture."

I gave Ranger a quick kiss, said thanks, and walked out of the room.

Tank introduced me to Alvin in the control room. I could tell Alvin was the new recruit. Like many of the Rangeman staff, he had his hair cropped short. However, unlike many on the Rangeman staff he had not yet lost his stiffness, and was standing at parade rest while he waited for me.

"Who are we going for this afternoon, Steph?" asked Tank.

"Aiden Multan. He was charged with selling illegal substances when he was caught selling powdered iguana testicles. Apparently there's a belief that it increases men's virility."

"How does that work? Are you supposed to mix it in water and drink it? Eat it? Inhale it? Rub it on your bits?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask Aiden when we catch up to him. Why, Tank? Are you trying to tell me something?"

"NO!" bit out Tank, going a little red in the face. I could hear Ranger laughing quietly behind me.

"It's okay, Tank", I said, patting his arm. "Every man goes through it at some point in their lives."

"No, I don't … I mean …" Tank was positively flustered in his embarrassment.

I smiled. "Gotcha." I reached up on my tiptoes and kissed Tank on the cheek. "I'm sorry. I couldn't resist."

* * *

I followed Tank's car out to the Multan apartment. He lived in a barebones three-story apartment building much like mine. No extra amenities. Unlike mine, each apartment had a balcony. Also unlike mine, there were no elevators. I sighed. Multan lived on the top floor.

There was a security system on the door, and I buzzed Multan. He answered on the first ring. "This is Stephanie here from the Jack Daniel's Corporation with the Jug of Jack's promotional giveaway. May we come up?"

"Yes, you may." He buzzed the door open.

We climbed to the third floor, me trying to breathe normally and hide the fact that I'm desperately out of shape. When we got to the top of the stairs, Tank asked us to wait a minute. I was grateful for the delay. "What are we doing?" asked Alvin.

"Reconnaissance", said Tank. I was also thankful for the lie. When I got my breathing under control, Tank started forward. "Our reconnaissance is finished", he said.

I walked down to Multan's apartment and knocked on the door. Aiden answered, a glass already in his hand, powder at the bottom of the glass. He moved to take the bottle from me. "Not so fast", I said with a smile. "I need to see some photo ID and get you to sign for the bottle before I can hand it over. I'm not allowed to just hand out free alcohol, you know."

"Sure, sure, of course." He went to get his wallet and came back with a huge smile on his face. "I have superpowers, you know. I have a special powder that makes me stronger, firmer, longer than normal", he said to me.

"Really?" I said, copying down his driver's licence number. I held the paper out for him to sign. "How does that work?"

"It is a magic powder. It gives men great strength and abilities, if you know what I am saying."

"It makes you more manly."

"Yes, exactly."

"How does it work? Do you eat the powder? Sniff it? Rub it into your skin?"

"You mix it in fruit juice – or whiskey – and drink it."

"What happens if a woman drinks it?"

"I don't know. I guess she becomes more manly."

"Does she grow chest hair and a beard?"

"I don't know. I don't know any women who've taken it."

"That's too bad. It might be good for all those women out there who'd like to be a man but couldn't afford a sex change operation. There, I've helped you this afternoon. I've found a whole new avenue for your marketing campaign."

"Thank you", said Aiden as he reached out to grab the jug of Jack's. Tank whipped out a set of cuffs but, before he could snap them on Aiden's wrists, Aiden shoved me aside and took off for the stairs. "You can't catch me", he cried. "I am on the magic powder and I am faster, stronger, more powerful than you!"

Tank took two steps, catching up to Aiden who was running away. He caught him by the back of his shirt and lifted him onto his tiptoes. Aiden's feet pedaled through the air as he tried to reach the ground. Tank shook Aiden slightly. "Stop", he commanded. Aiden's feet hung, finally still. "We're here representing your bonding agent. You missed your court date. Now, this is what we are going to do. I'm going to put you back down on the ground and you're going to stay where I put you. I'm going to cuff you, and we're going to lock up your apartment nice and tight. Then we're going to go out to the car and I'm going to drive you to the precinct so you can get your date rescheduled. Nod if you understand."

Aiden nodded his head.

We walked back to the apartment and I put the bottle of Jack's down on the kitchen table. "You mean I get to keep the bottle?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes, you do. I promised you a jug, and I'm giving you one."

"That's great." He paused for a minute, then said "I don't understand. I've been drinking that powder religiously for the last two months, and I wasn't able to get away from you." He puzzled that out in his head for a moment, then said "I know. You're also taking the magic powder, aren't you?"

"Tank doesn't need any magic powder. He uses working out instead to make him faster, stronger and more powerful", I said.

"What about longer?"

"I don't know anything about that", I said with a laugh. "But from what I heard, Tank doesn't need any help in that department either."

"What?" said Tank. "How would you … Lula." Tank and Lula were engaged briefly a couple of years ago. Lula broke it off when Tank adopted three cats. Lula is allergic to cats, and made Tank choose between the cats and her. Lula lost. "She has a big mouth."

"I heard that's not the only thing that's big", I said, laughing as I escorted the three men out of the apartment and locked the door. I led the trio of men back down to the car. By the time I got there Tank had lost some of the redness in his face, and Aiden had finally stopped trying to figure out how Tank was able to catch him.

I watched Alvin load Aiden in the car and handed my apprehension papers to Tank. "Sorry for teasing you like that. It wasn't very nice of me. But the opportunity just reared itself up, and I couldn't ignore it. Thanks for being such a good sport. After this morning's fiasco, I needed a good laugh."

"Steph, you got her, and that's all that matters. And you got this one as well. You've captured four people today. I think you're doing well. They can't all go smoothly."

"Thanks, Tank." I reached up on my tiptoes again and gave him another peck on the cheek. "You're a good man." I got back in my car and sent a text to Eduardo and Miguel to let them know I would be at the Piper residence in less than half an hour.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

"Hey, chica, are you ready to rock this thing?" asked Eduardo.

"Sure am. Our last one was a runner. He didn't get far before Tank caught him."

"Well, if this one is a runner I won't let her get far either", said Miguel.

I took the bottle out of my trunk and got my clipboard ready. "Ready?" I asked. At the nod of the men, we walked up to the house. I swore as we all heard the same sound – a baby crying. "Damn, I hate it when they have kids."

I rang the doorbell and waited for Olivia Piper to answer the door. After a few minutes, a young woman walked to the door carrying a little baby who was still wailing away. "I'm sorry", she said, "but I was changing Junior's diaper and couldn't answer the doorbell right away." Her eyes brightened as she spotted the bottle of whiskey. "My husband said that this was just a gimmick, that I wouldn't get a free bottle of Jack. But I'm really going to get one, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are. I just need to see some photo ID and get your signature, and then you may have the bottle."

"Just a minute", she said, thrusting the baby at me. The baby was still wailing, so I put it on my shoulder and started to sway, just like I had seen Val do so many times in the past. The baby stopped crying and started to suck on his fist. Olivia came back with her purse. "You must have the magic touch. I haven't been able to get him to stop crying all afternoon."

"I think he's hungry. He certainly seems to be sucking on his fist pretty hard."

"It's his feeding time. As soon as we've completed our business I'll feed him."

I stepped inside the house, Eduardo and Miguel coming in after me. "I'll give you the bottle of Jack, but I'm actually here representing your bonding agent. You missed your court date and we've come to escort you back to the precinct to reschedule."

"I can't go in. There's no one to look after my baby."

"I'm sorry, but I'm authorized to take you in, no matter what. However, I will give you a little time to find someone to look after the baby. Perhaps I could call your husband and ask him to come home?" I said, handing back the baby and pulling out my phone.

"I guess you'll have to." Deprived of my swaying, the baby started to fuss again.

"Let's go sit down. And while we're waiting for your husband to come home, you can feed the baby."

We all sat down in the living room, and Olivia pulled down the neckline of her scoop-necked t-shirt and undid her nursing bra. She pulled her breast out from her shirt and latched on her son. I looked at Eduardo and Miguel. Both were bright red and looking anywhere around the room other than at Olivia and the baby. I looked back at Olivia and could see the laughter lurking in her eyes.

I called Olivia's husband, introduced myself, and explained why I was calling. I received agreement from him that he would come home right away. When I got off the phone, it was quiet in the room; the only sounds were ones of sucking as the little boy enjoyed his lunch.

"Why did you miss your court date?" I asked.

"I didn't forget it or anything. I just didn't have anyone to take care of Junior, and I was afraid that he'd be taken away from me if I took him into court with me."

"I can understand why you're concerned. However, it isn't advisable for you to miss it again. Judges tend not to look too kindly on people who continually miss their court date, even if it's for a valid reason. It's imperative that you show up the next time."

Olivia switched sides for Junior, placing him on her other breast. "Ohmygod. They wouldn't take Junior away from me, would they?"

"Not likely, although they'll be more likely to put you in jail if you continually don't show up to court." Junior popped off the breast, sound asleep. Olivia tucked herself back into her shirt and slung the baby over her shoulder to burp him.

A few minutes later a harassed man came running into the house. "Olivia!" he shouted, waking the baby up as he ran into the room. "What have you done now?"

"This is all your fault", she yelled right back. The baby started to cry. "If you hadn't charged me with assault, I wouldn't have to go to court. All I did was hit you once. You didn't even bruise from it. And I already apologized."

"Can we all calm down?" I said loudly to try to get heard over the crying and the yelling. Olivia and her husband continued to berate each other, and the baby continued to cry. I felt like I was losing control of the situation. I went over to Olivia and took the baby, putting him on my shoulder and again beginning to sway. The baby slowly settled again. Olivia and her husband were so surprised by the absence of crying that they also stopped yelling, instead turning to me to look at me in shock. "Your yelling is upsetting the baby and is causing him to cry. The two of you need to stop, if not for yourselves then for the baby. No child deserves to grow up in a loud household. Now, this is what we're going to do. I'm leaving the baby with you", I said, passing the now snuffling infant over to Olivia's husband, "and I'm taking Olivia with us to the precinct for rescheduling. I'll call Vinnie and have him come down right away to have her rebonded out as soon as possible, to try to get her home in time for the next feeding. After that, it's up to you. Just be aware that it wouldn't be a good idea for you to miss your court date again." I helped Olivia up off the couch and took Miguel's cuffs from him. "I'm sorry, Olivia, but it's protocol to go into the station cuffed. I don't think you are going to try to escape, however, so I'm not going to shackle you." By now Olivia was crying, great gulping sobs which set off the baby again.

Olivia's husband looked at me in a panic. "What do I do?" he asked.

That's like asking the blind to lead the blind, I thought. "Cuddle him and rock him. That's what I found works." I cuffed Olivia and led her from the house to the car. I handed her off to Miguel, and handed the paperwork over to Eduardo. "I'm sorry to run, guys, but I'm late to my next appointment."

"No problem, Steph. We'll take care of her for you."

Manuel and Ethan were already waiting for me at Mila Madison's townhome in the projects, an area of Trenton filled with cheap houses and broken dreams. I got out of the car and, taking a bottle out of the trunk, met with the men at the base of the walkway up to the house. "Sorry I'm late", I said. "We had a domestic situation at the last house."

"I look forward to hearing about it", said Manuel.

I rang the doorbell. We waited. I rang the doorbell again. We waited. I rang the doorbell again. When I didn't hear any footsteps in the house, I pulled out my phone and punched in Mila's phone number. After letting it ring several times, Mila answered. "Who'z callin' at such an infern…infern…infernal hour?"

"This is Stephanie from the Jack Daniel's Corporation. We're at your front door with the Jugs of Jack's promotional bottle of whiskey. Are you receiving visitors?"

"I be there." We heard someone staggering around, walking into walls and stumbling over carpets. Eventually, we heard her open the closet door. "Fuck!" we heard her exclaim. "Coats! Where did my bottle of Jack go?" I looked at the guys and tried not to laugh.

A few minutes later the front door finally opened. "Where's my bottle?", she slurred out. "I've run out of h…h…hooch."

"Mila Madison?" I said.

"That's my name. Don't wear it out", she cackled. She stretched out her hands. "Can I have my bottle?"

"You may have it in a minute. I need to see some photo ID, and then you have to sign the form for me."

"Fuck. I just want the bottle."

"You'll get the bottle, but we have to follow protocol. May I see your photo ID?"

"Yesh." Mila turned around and stumbled into the house. Manuel, Ethan and I followed behind. She grabbed her purse and opened her wallet. She tried to take out a card, but her fingers weren't working properly. She thrust the wallet at me. "Can you … can you take it out?"

"Certainly." I took out the card and saw that it was a library card. "This doesn't have a picture on it." I took out another three cards until I found her gym membership, which did have a picture on it. I wrote down the information on the form and had Mila sign it in her illegible scrawl. As she reached for the bottle, Manuel cuffed one of her wrists. "Bond enforcement", I said. Manuel spun her around and cuffed her other wrist, almost toppling her over with the movement.

"Doesh thish mean I won't get the bottle of Jack's?" asked Mila, looking as though she were about to cry.

"No, I promised you a bottle of Jack's and I'll give you a bottle of Jack's. I'll leave it on your kitchen counter for you when you return from the precinct. You missed your court date and, as a representative of your bonding agent, I'm authorized to take you in to the station so that your court date can be rescheduled. This is a simple administrative exercise. It's not a big deal. However, I wouldn't advise you forgetting again. The courts don't tend to like that."

"Why are you arresting me again?"

"You were arrested for drunk driving."

"How could I be arrested for that? I don't even have a driver's licence."

"I know. But you can still be arrested for drunk driving even if you don't have a driver's licence. All it takes is for you to be driving when you are drunk."

"But how can they take away my driver's licence if I don't have one?"

"I don't know what they're going to do, but you're right. They can't take away your driver's licence if you don't have one."

"I don't want to go back to the precinct."

"I'm sorry, but this isn't optional. You have to go back into the station to get rebonded out."

"What did I do again?"

I looked at the guys. "I'll close up the house if you want to move her to the car. I'll meet you there in a few minutes." Manuel and Ethan moved Mila towards the car, and I did a quick run-through of the house to make sure that all the windows and doors were locked. I picked up Mila's purse off the kitchen counter, put her wallet back in her purse, and rooted around in her bag until I found her keychain. I closed the front door, locking it behind myself, and walked down to meet Manuel at the car. Ethan was already sitting in the driver's seat. I handed Manuel my apprehension papers, then wished them luck. "I will meet you back at the office in half an hour", I said.

"Sure thing", said Manuel.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter** **Twenty**

I sat in the car for a few minutes, enjoying the sane peacefulness as I texted Ranger. _"Another three completed. Will be back at the office within the half hour."_ I then sent a text to Morelli. _"Promised you I would tell you how the day was going. Caught six skips so far, and only two have tried to escape. We caught them. Have two more to try to capture this evening. The Jug of Jack's promotion has worked well. Overall, the skips' main concern has been whether I'll still leave the bottle for them once they realize I'm not really representing the Jack Daniel's company. This has been so successful I may use this stunt again some time."_ By the time I had finished typing my message to Morelli I had a response from Ranger. _"Congrats. See you soon."_ I waited a couple more minutes, and got a response from Morelli. _"Good work. Always knew you were smart. If you can, give me a call later or tomorrow to tell me all about your day."_ I wrote back _"Sure thing. It'll be tomorrow. Ranger and I are going out for a late dinner to celebrate after we bring the last skip in."_

* * *

"Everything okay?" asked Ranger when I entered the office.

"Yes, why wouldn't it be?"

"Judging from when you sent the last text, I was expecting you here a little bit ago."

"I texted a bit with Morelli before I left Mila Madison's place. I promised him the other day that I was going to let him know how it was going, and I just remembered my promise before I left. So I texted him right away before I forgot again."

"How is Morelli?"

"Okay, I guess. I didn't ask. He asked me to call him tonight or tomorrow to tell him about it in person. I told him it would have to be tomorrow because we're going out to dinner tonight to celebrate."

"How did he take that?"

"That's what I was waiting around a few minutes to see, but he didn't text me back. I don't want to hurt his feelings, but I need to at least hint to him what is going on so he doesn't find out from someone else. Trenton is a small enough place that it isn't inconceivable that someone will recognize us now that we are going out and about, and that they'll tell Morelli. It's only fair he knows first."

"I agree. Why don't we walk down to the break room and pick out a snack to put us on until dinner?" We walked down together, stopping briefly at my office so that I could strap on my gun and deposit my purse in my drawer. I turned on the computer as I left the room.

I poured myself a coffee and doctored it with cream. I took a sip and sighed with pleasure. Ranger started to laugh. "Hey, I haven't had a coffee since lunch. My blood caffeine levels are seriously dropping. It was getting critical."

"What happens when your coffee intake drops?" asked Ranger.

"That's easy. I fall asleep."

"Is that why Ella reported a huge increase in the quantity of coffee that we go through since you started with the company? It all makes sense now", Ranger teased. I picked up a container of mixed raw vegetables and dip with a container of sliced cheese and crackers. Ranger picked up a bag of mixed nuts and a container of raw veggies as well. He poured himself a coffee and followed me down to his office. I sat down at his conference table and pulled out my phone as it pinged. I read the text message from Morelli _"does this mean that you and Ranger are a thing?"_

"I don't know how to respond to this", I said.

"Tell him the truth. He's a big boy and it has been a few weeks now. If it were me, I'd want to know."

I thought for a minute, then nodded my head. I'd want to know as well. I typed in the message _"we're something."_ I put my phone down on the table.

"Tell me how this afternoon went. I heard from Tank that the iguana testicle guy thought he had magical powers from drinking the powder."

"Yeah. I tried to find out how it all worked, since Tank had been interested earlier and, if truth be told, I was interested as well. The guy seemed a little fuzzy on the details, though. He said that ingesting the powder will make you more manly and, when I commented that it would be ideal for women who wanted a sex change but could not afford the operation, he didn't seem to know whether that would work." Ranger started laughing. "What? Wouldn't that be the ultimate test about its manliness enhancing properties? It's not like I asked him whether the woman would grow a penis. I just asked him whether a woman would start to grow a beard or would develop chest hair."

"Is that a sign of manliness to you? A beard and chest hair? Perhaps I should stop shaving."

"No, you're perfect the way you are. No one in their right mind would ever question your manliness." Ranger just grinned at me. "The next skip was a sad case. That was the domestic dispute, where the woman was charged with assaulting her husband. They had a little baby, not very old – maybe four months? I don't know. I'm not very good with babies."

"That's not what I heard. I heard you have the magic touch."

"I don't know about that. I just copied what I had seen Val do when she had little Lisa. Lisa had colic and cried a lot, so I had plenty of first-hand experience of seeing how Val soothed the baby. The funny part was that Olivia, the mother that we were taking in, needed to feed little Junior before she left. She whipped out her breast and started to feed the baby. Eduardo and Miguel didn't know where to look. They certainly didn't look at Olivia and just being in the room at the same time made them blush. Their reactions were pretty funny and Olivia knew that they were uncomfortable. She purposely didn't cover up and she was struggling not to laugh every time she looked at their faces."

"I might have been equally as uncomfortable as them."

"Really? Why? It's just a piece of flesh. You see more exposed when you go to a topless beach."

"Yes, but there is something wildly erotic about seeing a woman feed her child."

"Why?"

"I don't know." Ranger's eyes darkened and his voice deepened. "Seeing your child's lips locked around your woman's breast, knowing your child is taking sustenance like you have taken sustenance so many times in the past, knowing that you and your woman made that child. It is a very earthy sense of eroticism."

Oh, boy. Even I was getting turned on by the visual he was creating. "Is that what you experienced with Rachel and Julie?"

"No, with Julie I was there for the birth but when she was one month old I was sent on a twelve month deployment which was then extended another three months, and I missed the rest of her first year. Rachel and I tried at first but, by the time my deployment was extended we knew we weren't going to make it. Too much time had passed without seeing each other, and I found that I didn't really miss her and she didn't miss me. I didn't really miss Julie either. I didn't know her, other than remembering her as a little bundle. I still find it hard with her. Rachel is good about continually emailing pictures to me, and sending me messages about how Julie is doing both in school and personally. But I don't really feel like I have a connection with her though, and I don't spend enough time with her to develop one."

"That's sad. You're such an amazing person. She's missing out on a lot in not knowing you."

"Thank you. But she has an amazing set of parents now, and I am a bit superfluous. I do right by her, and send presents and regular support payments. But emotionally? She doesn't need me." He paused to take a bit of raw carrot. "So tell me about the last skip."

"The last skip was the DUI that was arrested when she was taking her driving test. She was so drunk when she was picked up today that she couldn't find the front door when I rang the doorbell. She didn't have a clue what was going on. Again, she was more concerned about whether we were going to leave the bottle at her place than she was about being captured. That was what I was finding across the board today. The skips, or their loved ones, were generally more interested in the provision of alcohol then they were about being taken into the station again."

* * *

I did an hour of work before walking into the control room to meet up with Hector and Jose. I was pleased to note that Hector had applied cover-up to his tattoo kill marks under his eye. That would make the capture go more smoothly, I thought. Without the cover-up, Hector looked downright scary. With the cover-up, he looked kind of cute. After seeing Ranger's reaction to being called cute, I decided not to tell Hector that.

I introduced myself to Jose. I hadn't worked with him before, even though he'd been working at Rangeman for a few months now. He'd always been working patrol and hadn't been in the office working on the monitoring desk since he had been trained. Since he had been trained before I started with Rangeman, I had heard about him but had not personally met him.

"The person we are going after is Jonathan Jones. His friend was arrested for rape and, when he needed an alibi, Jonathan provided one. Fortunately, the lie was discovered and Jonathan's friend was found guilty of rape, and Jonathan was charged with perjury."

We drove to Hamilton Township and found the street where Jones lived, me in my car and the Rangeman crew in a fleet car. Getting there, I took a bottle of Jack's out of the trunk and my trusty clipboard. Hector and Jose got out of their car, and stood waiting at the end of the driveway for me to pull all my parts together.

We walked up the driveway together, me in the front and the Rangeman team behind and to each side of me. I think Ranger forgot to tell them that this wasn't a protection detail.

I rang the doorbell and waited. Jonathan came to the door, a huge smile on his face. "I have to say," he said, "that you've made my day. I had a terrible day at work and I knew that the Jug of Jack promotional bottle was coming this evening, and that made it all better."

"Glad we could be of help. Now, we need to see some picture ID, I need you to sign this sheet, and then we can give the bottle to you."

Jonathan enthusiastically got out his wallet and extracted his driver's licence. "Will this do?"

"Yes, thank you." I checked his identification and wrote down his driver's licence number, then had him sign the form. As he excitedly reached for the bottle, Hector snapped cuffs around Jonathan's wrist.

"What is this?" he cried, confused and angry.

"Bond enforcement. You failed to appear in court so we are taking you into the precinct to reschedule your date."

"This isn't fair. You lied to me."

"I didn't lie much. I am going to leave you the bottle of Jack. I just lied about the fact that we were working for the Jack Daniel's Corporation. Otherwise, it was all the same. We are doing a Jug of Jack promotion. We are leaving you your free bottle of Jack. We're just taking you into the precinct first, before you get a chance to drink any of it. You'll still have it to come home to when you get out."

"I knew my day was rotten. I guess my luck hasn't changed."

"Hey, it was only a little white lie for us. It's not like the whopper you told that got your buddy off of his rape charges for a while. If you're upset with us for capturing you and making you do what you promised to do, can you imagine how that girl felt after she was raped by your friend and then your friend had a false alibi given? It would have made her feel pretty terrible."

"It wasn't supposed to be a big thing. My friend came to me and told me he'd been framed and he needed an alibi. Like an idiot, I gave him one and when everything started going down I felt trapped, like I couldn't get out of the lie. It all blew up in my face."

"For the record, you always have options and being honest and responsible are usually the best options to follow." Hector slapped on the other cuff.

"This isn't fair. It was a crime of circumstance."

"Tell that to the judge when you see him or her. In my book, you always have a choice. You may not like that choice, but doing what is good and right are not always the easiest things to do. Do what is good and right now. You've missed your court date and are going to be rescheduled. Do yourself a favour. Show up for your next court date."

I got his keys and walked through the house, closing and locking all the windows, turning off the oven and putting the half-cooked food in the refrigerator, and putting the bottle of Jack on the kitchen counter. There was a cat in the house, and I made sure the cat had plenty of water and access to its litter box. After asking Jonathan, I found out the cat had already been fed. Then, locking the door after ourselves, I walked with the men down to the Rangeman vehicle, gave them the apprehension papers, and sent them on their way. Getting in my car, I sent a text to Ranger. _"Capture went smoothly. Just leaving Hamilton Township now. Will text you when I get to the office so you can meet me in the parking garage."_


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One**

I was waiting with my last bottle of Jack and my clipboard beside Ranger's Cayenne when he came down. He'd taken off his gun at his hip, but I knew that he was still dressed. He'd be wearing a gun at his ankle as well as a knife somewhere on his body. It was rare that Ranger was ever fully naked, reserved for date nights, personal time with me and time spent with his family.

I put my props in the car, and got in beside Ranger. "Refresh me on this skip?" he asked.

"Gianna Bermley has a one-year old daughter. Gianna took a taxi to the local convenience store to get some smokes and beers, taking her daughter with her. She left her daughter in the car with the meter running, went inside the convenience store and, taking out a gun that she had hidden in her purse, held up the store. She might have been successful if it wasn't for the fact that the convenience store employee, who was working cash that night, was a former marine. He captured Gianna by disarming her then holding her still. Records show that Gianna swore up a blue streak and cried foul, saying that her daughter was in the cab and needed to go home to bed. Instead of getting herself let go the way she intended, the employee called the police. The taxi was still waiting, meter running, when the police showed up a few minutes later. They put the toddler into Child Protective Services, where the toddler is going to remain until her mother is either cleared of all charges or convicted. She said she needed the money from the theft to pay for the cab fare."

"Sounds straightforward."

"Hopefully it is. I'm ready for some Mexican food."

Ranger parked a couple of houses down the street from the row house in the Burg. The house was uncomfortably close to my parents' house, and I could only hope that I didn't see anyone from the neighbourhood that I knew. I didn't want my cover blown before we were able to capture Gianna.

I rang the doorbell, and Gianna came running to the door, asking us through the screen to not wake the baby. I looked at Ranger with an "oh, shit" look on my face. Ranger also did not look happy.

When Gianna opened the door, I went through my spiel, confirming that Gianna was Gianna by her driver's licence and getting her to sign the form that I had created. Then, when Gianna reached for the bottle, Ranger slapped cuffs on her. "What's this?" she said, beginning to struggle.

"Bond enforcement", I said. "You missed your court date a week ago and you need to go back into the courts to reschedule."

"I can't do that. I am looking after my neighbour's daughter. She's sleeping upstairs and I can't leave her."

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to find someone else to look after the baby while you're going through the bonding process again."

"I can't do that. I have to look after the baby."

"Perhaps you can call your neighbour and let her know you're not available to look after her baby any longer?"

"I can't do that."

"Why is that?"

"My neighbour's dead."

"I don't understand. When did your neighbour die?"

"A few weeks ago. I promised to look after her baby no matter what, and then she died in a car accident."

I went upstairs and lifted a sleeping baby gently into my arms. I walked downstairs. "Is this your neighbour's baby?" I asked.

"Yes, she is."

"What is her name?"

"Alexandria."

"Why haven't you handed the baby over to her guardians? Her godparents must be frantic not knowing what is happening to Alexandria."

"Evie asked me to take care of her daughter while she was gone and I promised that I would."

"Yes, but she isn't your responsibility. Alexandria needs to go to her godparents for them to take care of her, just like her parents wanted."

"Her mother asked me to look after the baby. Her mother was my friend and I want to do right by her."

"What about the baby's father? Did he also die in the car accident?"

"No, but he was a jerk. I don't want the baby going to him."

"Why was he a jerk?"

"He made my friend cry."

"I'm sorry, but no matter what you think about the father, he is the baby's father and has the right to parent his daughter."

I turned to Ranger. "I suspect that, since there is a baby involved, it would be better to have the police do the capture. Child Protective Services are going to need to be called. There is something hinky going on."

"I agree."

I called dispatch. "I have a skip that needs to be picked up, but I also have a baby that needs to be put into Protective Services as well as a bit of a mystery. Would you mind sending a detective out to the house?" I asked.

After receiving assurances that the police were on their way, I hung up. The baby woke up and started rooting around at my chest. "Are you hungry, little one? Do you already have bottles made up for the baby?" I asked.

"Yes, I do, in the fridge", said Gianna.

I got out a bottle and warmed it in the microwave for a few seconds. I shook the mixture and, testing it upon my wrist to find that it was the proper temperature, I started feeding the baby. Ranger's eyes grew dark as he watched me.

Partway through the bottle the baby started to fuss. I put her over my shoulder and burped her, then started feeding her again. Once again, I was thankful for the time I had spent with Val's kids and my experience in looking after them.

Morelli came to the door and Ranger let him in. His eyes turned soft as he looked at me feeding the baby. I got up to join the two of them at the side of the room, still feeding the infant.

"Something seems off. She said her friend died in a car accident recently and, when the mother left the baby with her, the mother asked Gianna to look after Alexandria. Gianna does not want to hand over the child to the father for care and seems to get quite upset when I suggest that the father should receive the infant. What is your read on the situation, Ranger?"

"I agree with you, Babe. Something seems off."

"Okay." Morelli typed in a request for more information and sent a text to the precinct. "I have Child Protective Services coming regardless of what I find out. They should be here soon. I'll talk to her now, and I'd appreciate it if you could stick around for a little bit, at least until Child Protective Services shows up."

"Sure. No problem."

We walked over to Gianna. "I was just telling Officer Morelli about Alexandria. How long have you been looking after her?"

"Just a few weeks. Evie left her in my care before she passed away. She would want me to look out for her."

"Do you have the name of her father?" asked Morelli.

"Bob. His name is Bob."

"Does he have a last name?"

"Yes, I'm sure he does. I don't know what it is though."

"What about your friend? What was her last name?"

"Williams. Her last name was Williams."

"So the baby's name is Alexandria Williams?"

"Yes, she is."

"She isn't your baby to look after. She is her father's baby to look after or, if he is unavailable, her godparents' baby to look after." Morelli typed in a text to the precinct asking for information on Bob Williams and whether he had reported a missing baby. "Were Evie and Bob living together when Evie died?"

"Yes, they were."

"That baby is Bob's, not yours."

"EVIE GAVE HER TO ME!" Her yelling woke the sleeping baby up, and the baby started to cry. "Let me have Alexandria. You're not taking care of her right."

"You can't hold Alexandria right now, as your wrists have been cuffed. Don't worry, I will look after her for the time being", I said. I put the baby over my shoulder and burped her, then left her there as I stood and swayed to some imaginary music. The baby settled as I looked up to see both Ranger and Morelli looking at me, a soft glow in their eyes.

Yeesh.

Morelli's phone pinged and thankfully broke the mood. He read the text, then stood Gianna up. "I am transferring custody of Gianna over to me", he said to us. "Gianna Bermley, I am arresting you for the kidnapping of Alexandria Williams. You have the right to remain silent…" he said as he led her out of the room.

"NO! Don't take her away from me. I have to protect her, take care of her. I promised Evie", we could hear as she walked down the hall to the front door.

I left the baby, finally settled, on my shoulder and sat down. "I don't know what was going through her mind to think that Evie's request for her to look after Alexandria for a couple of hours was the same thing as raising a child for the rest of her life."

Morelli came back into the house. "Gianna is in the back of my car. Protective Services just arrived. Thank you for your help tonight. Because of you, we have found a missing child. The baby's father reported her missing after the death of his wife and he's been frantic trying to find her."

"Thank the Jack Daniel's company. It was their bottle of Jack that enabled the capture. Do you think she's going to get out on bail?"

"No, I don't. I'd be shocked if she's released again. Now, come through and hand over the baby while I give final instructions to the uniforms." I got up and walked out with the baby to meet Angela Tanner, a cuddly looking, gray-haired woman. She had a huge smile on her face as she looked at the little baby.

"There are additional bottles that have already been made up in the fridge, and I saw some jars of baby food in there as well. Is she even old enough to eat baby food?" I asked.

"No, she isn't. However, it won't kill her. It would just likely give her a tummy ache." The baby began to fuss and I put her up on my shoulder and started to sway. "You're good at soothing little babies. Have you ever thought about becoming a foster mom?" she asked.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I've had more experience with babies today than I've had in my whole life put together."

"You didn't like cuddling with the baby?" asked Morelli, looking disappointed. When we had broken up two months ago, Morelli had been making noises about having children with me. One of the reasons we broke up was a difference of opinion in how we wanted to live our lives. I didn't want and do not want to have children. He does.

"You'd have to be made of stone to not like cuddling with a baby", I said. "But there's a whole lot more to having children than cuddling with babies, and it's all that other stuff that makes me not interested in having my own kids." Morelli looked disappointed. "Ranger and I are going into the station to pick up my body receipt. See you around?"

"Absolutely. I still want to hear about your captures today."

"I'll call you tomorrow. Perhaps we can meet over morning coffee so I can tell you about them." Morelli started looking hopeful again. "We need to go. After getting our body receipt, we're going out for Mexican." Morelli's face fell into the same disappointed expression as mine when I look in the cupboard and fail to see any dessert. Ranger and I turned and left.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

"Tell me about your sister, Maria", I asked as we were eating nacho chips and salsa.

"She's a lovely person, a bit nosy, but with good intentions. She'll greatly enjoy you. You have similar personalities."

"How is that?"

"You are both stubborn, have big hearts, and are protective and smart. Also, neither of you give up easily and both of you are determined to succeed. I think you'll like her."

"I'm not so sure about that. Nosy? Stubborn? Don't give up easily? It sounds like you have just taken most of my negative characteristics and rolled them into your sister."

"They aren't your negative characteristics. They are what make you successful, what make you, you."

"I'm nervous."

"You shouldn't be. You came through the meeting with my family a week ago with flying colours. You'll come through this one equally as well."

"Flying colours almost literally, as I showed my underpants when I tackled that skip."

"But I think I was the only one who got to see, since I was the first one there. Everyone else moved a little more slowly."

"Thank God."

Ranger laughed. "I have to say, I admired the view. It's not often you get to see the one you love rolling around in the dirt with her skip."

"Unfortunately, I think you have seen that all too often for my liking."

"It was sort of erotic", he said with a grin as he teased me. I made a face and threw a nacho chip at him. "Who needs to go to the mud pits when I can just watch you?"

I paused. "You've actually been to the mud pits?"

"Yes. I've picked up skips there in the past. It was a most fascinating place. All those women, and all that mud."

"And did you like it?"

"Truthfully? It was a little dirty for my liking, but I guess I can see how it would turn on some guys."

"Did I ever tell you about the time when I was thrown into the pit and forced to wrestle?"

Ranger's eyes went dark. "Really?"

* * *

Ranger dropped me off at my apartment.

"I'm just going to come up to your place to check that it's safe", he said, getting out of the car and locking it behind us again.

"You don't have to do that. Nobody can get into my apartment without the control room knowing."

"I'll check it anyway, in case someone tunneled in from the neighbours or something."

"Lame", I said with a laugh as I unlocked my apartment door. While I didn't want Ranger to go, I had reservations about him staying over again.

Ranger followed me in, shutting and locking the door behind himself. He pushed me up against the wall and gave me a deep kiss. As our tongues touched and mated, an arrow of sensation went straight to my doodad. I think I moaned as I undressed Ranger. Ranger undressed me in equal abandon. By the time we made it to the bedroom we were completely undressed and breathing hard. A couple of times later, I was no longer concerned about Ranger staying over. I was warm, cuddly and relaxed and, with Ranger cuddled in all warm, snuggly and relaxed as well, everything seemed somehow right with the world.

* * *

At five o'clock Ranger's watch alarm went off. I burrowed sleepily into him. Ranger smoothed my curls away from my face and kissed my forehead. "I am going for a run", he said. "I will be back in an hour and a half."

"No. Sleep", I mumbled and pulled him closer.

"You sleep. I'm going running", he said, amused. He extricated himself from my Vulcan grip and left the apartment. I fell back to sleep before it registered that I didn't see him bring in a bag of clothing the night before.

* * *

"Where did you get the running gear?" I asked over breakfast.

"I keep a spare set in the car and, when I was here last time, I transferred up my extra shoes and a couple of clean sets of clothes and left them in your closet. On the way back in to the building this morning, I transferred up another set of clean running gear and I will take home my dirty clothes today."

"Oh."

"Problem?"

"No, just getting used to things." I was, in fact, surprised that I hadn't noticed Ranger's clothes and shoes in my closet. But then, I hadn't been home enough in the past couple of months to notice anything. I tried to decide if I was uncomfortable by the knowledge that Ranger was slowly moving into my place as much as I had slowly moved into his space. I decided that I wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but that I was unsettled.

Ranger looked at me, assessing, then smiled. "You're even more of a commitment-phobe than I am and I didn't think that was even possible."

"I am. I have gone the route of commitment before and it didn't turn out so well."

"Maybe you were just taking that drive with the wrong person."

"Maybe."

"Maybe I'm the right person."

Oh boy. I tried not to hyperventilate. "We'll see."

He looked at me, assessing again. "I can live with that, just as long as you're willing to try it out to see." He paused, then steered the conversation into less unsettling waters. "So, who do you have left on your list for Vinnie?"

"I have one more bond. Nolan Nyetta. That's the guy who raped three little girls and gave them AIDS who we've been trying to capture. I left a message at his doctor's office late yesterday afternoon, after his doctor had left for the day. I haven't yet received a return phone call, but I didn't expect to. It isn't even standard working hours yet."

"Are you going to visit the office personally?"

"If I don't hear from him by the time I go to the doctor's myself, then yes, I'll visit the office personally."

"I'll take you to get your sutures out, and then we can go together to see Nyetta's doctor. What else do you have on for today?"

"Taking in my body receipts and picking up our cheques. I'll pick up yours at the same time, and coffee with Morelli. I was thinking, if you're available, of having lunch with you. Also, I was hoping to get into the range today for a while. I haven't been in a couple of days, and my shooting instructor is going to get angry with me if I stop practicing regularly."

"Getting into the range is a good idea. It would also be a good idea to get back into the gym today, now that you are not so crazily busy." I made a face, and I could tell Ranger was thinking about smiling. We made arrangements to meet at four for training anyway.

After my shower, during which time I moved Ranger's shower bag back into the bottom drawer of my vanity, the place where I had shoved it the last time I was feeling overwhelmed by the speed at which our relationship was moving, Ranger and I drove to the office. Getting there, I picked up the stack of body receipts and transferred to my car, driving to the bonds office and picking up a dozen assorted doughnuts on the way. I walked into the office with the file of body receipts under my arm and the box of doughnuts in my hand. I placed the box on Connie's desk.

"It was good that I was back in the office yesterday. We were busy trying to keep up with the rebonding process. You caught a lot of skips."

"Eight in total, and I had receipts for two more that were caught on the weekend. I only have one outstanding now", I said, selecting a double chocolate cake doughnut and biting down on it with a sigh.

"Three more came in yesterday, so you now have four. And Nyetta will be a good one to catch since he's such a high bond."

"I know. I'm trying." I finished my chocolate doughnut and picked out a blueberry fritter.

"Oh, oh", said Lula as she entered the office and came and sat down. "You're eating doughnuts again. What's wrong, girlfriend?"

"It's Ranger." I finished up the blueberry fritter and selected a honey crueller.

Lula and Connie sat forward on their chairs, eyes alight in interest. When I didn't say anything else, Lula prompted me. "What? Did you find out he's gay? That he has a secret ex-wife and child? Wait, you already found out about the secret ex-wife and child. That he has a secret life? No, I know. He likes wearing women's panties. Don't you hate it when you find out they like wearing your panties?"

"I can't say that I have ever had that problem", said Connie, staring at Lula as she selected a doughnut.

I also stared at Lula. "I haven't had that problem either."

"No? I thought that was a common problem. Hunh. Maybe I just have more attractive underwear than you do. Maybe my thongs look more comfortable than your thongs, since mine fit a big, beautiful woman like me whereas yours fit your skinny ass."

"Maybe, but I really can't imagine Ranger in women's underwear. And I can't imagine Morelli in them either. However, now that you mention it, I can imagine The Dick wearing them."

"See? That's what I'm saying."

"No, I'm not having a problem with Ranger wearing my underwear."

"Then what's the problem, girlfriend? Because I wouldn't have no problem with him. He's one fine looking dude."

"The problem is that he wants to get serious, and he's slowly pushing his way into my life."

"And that is bad, how? That sounds ideal to me."

"He has moved a shower kit into my bathroom, and he now has workout gear in my closet. He spends time doing whatever with me just so that he can spend time with me. On Saturday we had a date at the laundromat while I did laundry. He even likes to just cuddle when I am too tired to have sex, although to be honest, that hasn't happened very often. When I am around him I always want to have sex."

"So what's the problem?"

"I've always thought of him as being leery of commitment. He was a safe person to get together with, as nothing was ever going to come of it." I selected a cinnamon sugar cake doughnut and broke off a piece. "Now it seems he isn't so leery of commitment after all. He's not as safe as I thought."

"So, it's you who is nervous around commitment."

"Hell, yeah. Look at me. I drifted into a marriage with a man I thought I loved, just to find out three months later that he had a problem with loyalty and devotion, and with respecting me and who I am. I drifted into a relationship with Morelli, just to find out that he had a problem with, again, respecting me for who I am. I survived each of those break-ups. But what will happen if Ranger also has a problem with respecting me for who I am? I am closer to him than I ever was with Dickie, and I am just as good a friend, if not a better friend, with Ranger than I ever was with Morelli."

"So you're scared."

"Yeah, I'm scared. Terrified, actually. I don't want to take the chance that I'll lose the friendship. Yet I feel like Ranger is dragging me along behind him on this relationship thing. He's so forceful, purposeful, and he has such a strong will. I don't think I'm ready for this, yet I feel powerless to stop it and, in truth, I'm not sure if I want to. I don't know what I want. I just know that I'm unsettled and scared."

"Shee-it, girl. No matter what happens, I don't think Ranger wants to take the chance he will lose that friendship either." Connie nodded her head in agreement.

I selected a vanilla iced raised doughnut with sprinkles and inspected it. The sprinkle doughnuts are the ultimate happy food. They are sweet and doughy, their fried goodness melting in your mouth, the sprinkles reminding one of a rainbow as you eat them. I took a bite.

"Damn, girl. I haven't seen your panties in a twist like this since you shot Brodie. Just relax and take it one step at a time. Ranger isn't going to hurt you." Lula and Connie each helped themselves to a doughnut before I ate them all.

"Oh, oh."

"What's wrong?" they asked at the same time.

"Too many doughnuts", I said as I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

After I cleaned the bathroom and sprayed it with air freshener, I walked out again. "Are you sure it was too many doughnuts?" asked Lula.

"Definitely. I finished my period less than a week ago. It definitely was too many doughnuts."

"That's good. Because you need to be careful. If it's more than doughnuts, you'll be linked with Ranger for the rest of your life, no matter what you think about commitment." That was a sobering thought, and my stomach started to heave again. I must have turned green, as Connie hurriedly pushed her waste paper basket over towards me.

"No, it was definitely too many doughnuts. There are no unscheduled Manosos on the way."

"How would you react if there were? Asking yourself that question might help you figure out how you feel about commitment to him."

"I don't even want to think about babies." My stomach heaved again. "I need to go. I'm supposed to meet Morelli for coffee." I picked up my cheque and the Rangeman cheque, put them in my purse and left.

Once I was in the car, I decided I was too unsettled and my stomach was too upset to meet with Morelli. I texted him _"Going to cancel today. Just threw up at the bonds office. Can we take a rain cheque for tomorrow?"_ I turned on the car and headed to my apartment. When I got there I received a text from Morelli saying _"sure thing. Feel better. See you tomorrow."_


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

I went into my apartment and brushed my teeth, then had a long, hot shower. Once I blew dry my hair, I flopped down backwards on my bed in my favourite thinking position still wrapped in a towel and covered my face with my pillow. Unfortunately, this position is very similar to my favourite napping position and my brain got confused. Somewhere when I was trying to puzzle out my relationship with Ranger I fell asleep. Two hours later I woke when my pillow was lifted off my head. Ranger was looking down at me, worry in his eyes.

"We're running late for your doctor's appointment, Babe."

"Damn. I'm sorry. I must have fallen asleep."

"How was Morelli?"

"I didn't meet up with him." Instantly, the worry was erased from Ranger's eyes. "I went to the bonds office to pick up the cheques and while I was there I threw up. So after I picked up the cheques I came back here for a shower and to brush my teeth and I lay down for a second and I guess I fell asleep. I'm sorry. I'll be ready in a minute", I said, rushing around the room getting dressed. "How did you find me?"

"I checked your tracking watch when you didn't come back to the office on time. So, when I knew where you were, I texted you. And when I didn't receive a response, I phoned the doctor's office and told them we were going to be a little late and headed over here to meet up with you. You scared me when you didn't show up."

"I'm okay", I said around my toothbrush as I brushed my teeth. I spat out, rinsed, then used mouthwash for good measure. I brushed my hair and threw it up into a ponytail. Then I put on mascara and lip gloss, put on some sandals, and rushed to the door. "Ready."

Ranger captured me into a hug and kissed me lightly on the lips. "Are you feeling better after your nap?"

"I felt better almost immediately after I threw up. I had eaten too many doughnuts and my stomach rebelled. Apparently I should have stopped at six."

"Six? No wonder your stomach rebelled. I think mine would have rebelled at two."

"That's because you haven't subjected yours to the conditioning that mine has been subjected to over the years. Mine is experienced and is a more flexible eating machine than yours." I got in Ranger's Cayenne and waited until Ranger had also gotten in the car. "Doughnuts are one of God's given pleasures."

"Except when you throw them up."

"Yes. Except when you throw them up. But, as unpleasant as that is, throwing them up is nature's way of making sure you don't gain weight."

"That's a good theory." He paused. "Does this mean that you didn't get a chance to phone Nyetta's doctor?"

"No. I was sleeping."

"Do you want to go visit his doctor after you get your stitches out?"

"Do you have time?"

"I do. I had planned on going to see his doctor this afternoon based on our initial conversation."

After I got my stitches out, Ranger asked me whether my stomach was up to eating some lunch. I said it was and, since we were close to the office, we headed back there for food from the break room. Ranger picked up a sandwich, some cut vegetables and an apple for his lunch. I got a bowl of chicken noodle soup and lots of soda crackers. Judging by how my stomach lurched when it smelled the food, I decided that I should play it safe and go for the stable food. "Your stomach still isn't steady, is it?" asked Ranger.

"Not exactly. But since I just finished my period, I know that it's just the doughnuts."

"I hadn't even gone there in my head."

"That's because you know I just finished it. Connie and Lula, however, did not and they got all excited when I threw up. They were envisioning little Manosos running around. Just be glad I didn't throw up in front of my parents. My dad would be looking for my grandmother's gun, my mother would be planning a wedding, and my grandmother would be asking for conception details."

"You wouldn't really give details, would you?"

"No, but that wouldn't stop her from asking. With Val, she asked Albert when Val refused to give her any."

"What did Albert do?"

"He reacted like a deer in headlights." I started to gag, and ran for the bathroom in the hall. Luckily, I made it in time. I cleaned up after myself, cleaning the bathroom at the same time, then walked back to Ranger's office. "Sorry about that."

"Babe, you aren't really feeling better, are you?"

"I am feeling better now that I threw up again. I was doing well until I ate."

"It's not the doughnuts. You already threw those up and it doesn't sound like you kept them down long enough to have a lasting effect. I think you have a bug, brought on by overwork. You've been working an incredible number of hours and haven't been resting as much as you should. It makes sense that you're sick. Why don't you go upstairs and go back to sleep for the afternoon? We can look for Nyetta tomorrow."

"Okay", I said. Ranger looked surprised that I had given in so easily. I normally would have argued intensely over not working. However, no matter what I'd told Ranger, my stomach was still upset and I was pretty tired. Having another nap sounded highly attractive.

Ranger put away my dirty dishes at the same time as he put away his, and I fished out his cheque from Connie. I put it on his desk blotter as he came back into the room. He took me by the hand and led me over to the elevator, walked me on to it and pushed the number seven, and took me up to his apartment. He waited until I had brushed my teeth, washed my face and taken out my ponytail, then tucked me in bed. "I am just going to be downstairs in my office if you need me."

My phone pinged with a text message. It was from Lula. _"Are you feeling any better?"_

I responded _"Marginally. Skipped Morelli. Went back to apartment and had nap. Met up with Ranger for lunch and threw up again. Currently going to have second nap of the day."_

Lula responded with _"Feel better."_

When I finished my texting, Ranger pulled the duvet up to my shoulders, got a waste bin and put it beside the bed, kissed me on my forehead, and wished me a good sleep. Despite my nap in the morning, I was still asleep by the time the apartment door closed after Ranger.

I slept straight through until Ranger came into the apartment before dinner. "I was just coming to check on you. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better", I said.

"Did you throw up again?"

"No. I slept straight through."

"Are you up for eating dinner? Or would you prefer that I eat in the break room?"

"No, I'd like to try some dinner. It might be good to get some good, stable food into me."

"Ella made roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, peas and carrots, so it's a fairly stable dinner. Should I tell her to bring it up?"

* * *

Over dinner, I asked Ranger "you're set against having children, right?"

"Yes, I don't think, with my lifestyle, that it makes sense. If it happens, then it happens and we'll deal with it then."

"Why haven't you gotten the snip?"

"Before you, I haven't had a relationship in a long time. It didn't make sense to me to have the operation done if I didn't have a reason for it. Up until I met you I was dead set against kids. I still don't think I want them, but seeing you yesterday with that baby in your arms made me wonder. It made me wonder what our children would look like, and that threw me. I have never, even when I was going out with Rachel, even when Rachel was pregnant, wondered what my children would look like. What about you? You're dead set against having kids, right? Why haven't you had your tubes tied?"

"It just seems like such a huge step. I'm pretty sure I don't want kids, yet when I held the babies yesterday, I have to admit that they tugged on my heartstrings. I also started wondering what our children would look like and the thought didn't have me running for cover the way that it did when I would consider the same thing with Morelli. Or with Dickie. What happens if I change my mind later down the line? I know my mother is always telling me that my clock is ticking, and that my time to have children is running out. If it runs out while I am still getting comfortable with the idea, then so be it. Kids aren't the be-all and end-all for me. The responsibilities associated with having kids are enormous. I'd have to change my lifestyle, and I don't think I'd get enough back from the kids emotionally to make up for my decrease in happiness associated with changing my lifestyle. But like you, I think I'm letting a certain amount be ruled by fate. We'll continue to use condoms, and I'll continue to take birth control pills. But if we still get pregnant? Then it must be fate for us to be parents."

"That's how I see it. Why the sudden interest in having children?"

"That comment from Lula, when she was getting excited about the possibility of little Rangebabies running around, set me off. It was the thought of 'what if'. I know we're careful most of the time, but there has been the odd time when we have slipped up, like when we're in the bathtub or the shower. And the pill is not one hundred percent foolproof. It's close, but not one hundred percent. What would happen if we got pregnant?"

"We would deal with it when it happens. Just because I don't want kids doesn't mean that I wouldn't want or love a child if we had a surprise pregnancy."

"I feel exactly the same way."

Ranger lifted my hand and kissed my fingers. "Is this your way of telling me something?" he asked with a half-smile.

"NO. You know I'm not pregnant. I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page."

Ranger gave a full smile. "Just teasing you. I know you're not pregnant. And we are definitely singing in the same choir."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

The next day I woke up at the same time as Ranger got up for his workout. As he finished in the bathroom, I sat up in bed. Ranger came out and looked surprised to see me up. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I think. My stomach seems to be steady, but I'm still waking up."

"Why don't you go back to sleep?"

"I slept most of yesterday and then all of last night. I think it's time to get up and get going for the day." I yawned. "I was thinking I would get some practice time in on the range."

* * *

After my shower I went to Ranger's computer and downloaded a picture of Nyetta's head. While the picture was printing I got dressed, put on my tinted moisturizer, mascara and lip gloss, and accessorized in a way that only bad-ass women can accessorize. I put on my gun holster and gun.

I picked up the picture off the printer and shut down Ranger's computer. I went down to the storeroom on the fifth floor to grab a box of bullets, then down to the basement to the range.

I entered the range, passing Hector as he was coming out. His scary teardrop tats were revealed again, and I walked quickly past him, saying "hi" as I did so. There was no one left on the range, which was just the way I liked it. I cued up a body target, and affixed the headshot of Nyetta before sending it to the other end of the range. I shot several clips into targets, at first avoiding the head. After having some success at chest shots, though, I forced myself to look at Nyetta's head. I thought about what he had done, and the number of children he had infected – three known ones, and countless others that were unknown. Then I shot several clips into his head, with moderate success. Better than I had ever done, but not as good as Ranger could have done. Of course, I doubted that I could ever do as well as Ranger could do.

After shooting several clips into the head, I took the pockmarked picture and affixed it to a clean target. I looked at the picture of Nyetta and imagined him threatening me. I imagined him pulling a gun on me, and I shot the target again. I hit the head so many times that the pockmarks in the paper became actual holes. I then refilled my clip, and shot a final clip in Nyetta's chest. All of these final shots were kill shots. Satisfied, I pulled up the target as Ranger came on the range. "Good job", he said. "I was watching through the observation window. You were doing really well, especially with your last two clips. What were you imagining when you shot them?"

"I was imagining that he was threatening me with a gun."

"All your chest shots are kill shots."

"Yes. You once told me that, if I could hit the head consistently I would be better at shooting kill shots on the chest. You were right. Most of my practice I concentrated on the head, only focusing on the chest at the beginning of practice and with my final clip." I put the targets in the recycling bin and led the way out of the range.

Ranger put his arm around my shoulders as we walked down the hall. "Now that you have had a chance to wake up, how are you feeling?" he asked.

"Good. I guess I just needed sleep."

"So I don't have to make an emergency run to the pharmacy for a testing kit?" he teased.

I laughed. "No, you don't."

Ranger smiled. "I'm actually not surprised that you got sick. You've been working an incredible number of hours lately and there has been an incredible amount of pressure on you to perform. Something was going to break down soon, and personally I would rather see you get the stomach flu than see you fall asleep at the wheel when you were driving."

"I was okay."

"Apparently not, Babe, if you're making yourself sick. Do you think you should take another day to rest?" He guided me onto the elevator and pressed the button for the seventh floor.

"I'm all right, but thanks for being concerned. I want to start to focus on Nyetta again. And I want to go to the bank and deposit my cheque. My bank account could use the cash infusion."

"Are you doing all right financially now that you are working at Rangeman as well?"

"Yes, I am. Last month I was actually able to move some of my chequing account into my savings account, and it has been a long time since I have been able to say that. Even better, with this cheque from Vinnie I'll be able to do the same thing again this month."

"If you ever need money, just let me know."

"Thank you", I said, reaching up on my tiptoes to kiss him on his cheek. "That's not necessary, but thank you."

Ranger keyed us into the apartment and called down to Ella that we were ready for breakfast. While we were waiting Ranger poured both of us a coffee. "I'm around today, if you want to take another run at the doctor's office. I was able to do today's work yesterday so that I would have time to help you today if you needed it."

"Thank you. I plan on telephoning all his family and friends that I can find as well to see if they know where he's located."

"Let's try the doctor first, and then if he is of no help you can try phoning family and friends."

Ella came in with breakfast, giving us a huge smile. "I heard about the bebé. Congratulations!"

"Baby! I had the stomach flu! I'm not pregnant!"

Ella's face fell. "You aren't pregnant?"

"No. Just overtired and I caught a bug. I'm sorry", I said when I saw the disappointment on Ella's face. "Just judging by time of the month, I am definitely not pregnant."

"Oh, I just thought…One of the guys said you were at the doctor's yesterday, and then when you threw up…And then when you needed to rest yesterday afternoon. Everyone thinks that you're pregnant. The guys are already laying bets as to when you are going to tell us, and whether the baby is going to be a boy or a girl."

"My staff have too much time on their hands", said Ranger in disgust.

"They're all just happy for you, and this is their way of wishing you the best", soothed Ella. "Don't be angry with them. They're just having a bit of harmless fun."

"So should I send out a staff memo saying that Stephanie isn't pregnant and that she had the stomach flu?"

"Or", said Ella, "you could let it go and I'll bet that Stephanie isn't pregnant. Considering everyone thinks that Steph is pregnant, I could earn a significant amount of money." She laughed and, I couldn't help it, I started laughing with her.

"Aren't you even the least bit upset about this?" Ranger asked me.

"Not really. Remember, I went through this yesterday at the bonds office, and we went through this to a certain degree with both sides of our families. As long as we are having a relationship, people are going to wonder every time I'm sick or overly tired. They do it out of love for us. At least, that's what you tell me when my mother starts pestering me to have children. Is it any different when it is your staff? At least they aren't telling you that you should have children or get married like my mother does."

A muscle jumped in Ranger's jaw before he decided not to be angry. "I'll still send out a memo to everyone today. I'll do it at the end of the day, Ella, so that you have time to lay your bets."

Ella thanked Ranger, then said "don't take any notice of your breakfast. I made it when I thought you were pregnant."

Curious, I lifted the plate cover as Ella was leaving the apartment, and started to laugh out loud. She had made a plate of scones, all in the shape of pacifiers, and had included a pot of strawberry jam, a pot of marmalade, a dish of butter, boiled eggs, orange juice, and what appeared to be a mug of something that smelled like hot ginger ale. When I looked at Ranger, he smiled. "Ginger tea is made with a piece of ginger steeped in hot water. It is old remedy that is good for settling tummies."

I tried a bit and wrinkled my nose. "I think I'm especially glad I'm not pregnant if that is supposed to make you feel better."

"You might like it better if it had honey in it, or if it had sugar in it. Think of flat ginger ale. It is fairly similar."

"How are you going to tell staff that I'm not pregnant?"

"I'm going to send out a memo asking if I can bet as well, and I'm going to bet that you aren't pregnant."

"Okay. Just don't give the guys a hard time. They're just having a bit of harmless fun in a job that's essentially pretty boring."

"I won't. I was more worried about your reaction. If you were at all upset about this, I would be stamping down on it as soon as I get in the office. However, since you aren't I will let them have their fun for the day and will send out my memo this evening."

* * *

Ranger and I entered the doctor's offices for Nyetta's doctor. He was with a patient when we got there. We sat and waited in the waiting room, Ranger sitting in a corner with a good vantage point on the whole room, me sitting beside him. Ranger stretched out his legs and steepled his fingers as he entered his tranquil stillness, his heartrate decreasing to reptilian level. I was not so calm. I fidgeted as I waited, shifting on my seat so frequently that Ranger left his meditative state and re-entered the world of the living. "Something on your mind?" he asked.

"No, not really. Just worried about what Nyetta is doing while he is roaming free."

"We are doing everything we can to catch him."

"But what happens if he has attacked another little girl while I was concentrating on all the other skips that I captured on Monday?"

"What happens if he didn't? What happens if you had concentrated on catching Nyetta and Madison had got behind the wheel of a car while drunk again and hit someone? Or if Piper had hurt her husband again or, god forbid, hurt her baby? Or if Bermley hurt little Alexandria or moved with the baby away from the baby's father so that we weren't able to find her? There are all sorts of 'what ifs' that could have happened. Don't torture yourself with them. Just deal with what did happen and move on."

I snaked my hand over and put it in his. He gently squeezed it, then brought it up to his mouth to kiss my fingers. "Don't drive yourself nuts over 'what ifs', Babe. It's an unproductive use of your time."

The receptionist came out and called Ranger and me into the doctor's office. The office was comfortably utilitarian, with simple, minimalistic lines and clean colours. We sat in the chairs in front of the doctor's desk. A couple of minutes later an older gentleman came in. "How may I help you? You said you're here about Nolan Nyetta?"

Ranger looked at me, so I took lead. "I'm Stephanie Plum and this is Ranger Manoso. We're here representing Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. Nolan Nyetta was arrested a little bit ago for the rape of three little girls. He raped them in a desperate bid to cure his AIDS. He was due in court a couple of weeks ago, but did not show up. This makes him a fugitive and it's our job to bring him back into the courts to reschedule the date of his trial. Anybody who withholds information is considered aiding and abetting a fugitive, which is a big no-no. We have been staking out his apartment but haven't yet found him. Do you know where we could find him?"

"I didn't know about the children. I knew about the teenagers, but was able to convince him that the teenagers wouldn't cure him. I thought I was able to convince him that unprotected sex of any sort was a bad idea for him, but I guess I didn't get through to him the way I thought I had."

"Did you report the rapes of the teenagers?"

"No, I didn't. He told me what he did in confidence, and I could not break that confidence. I did try to get him to turn himself in, but you can see how well I did with that thought. He really raped three young girls?"

"Yes. One was three, one was five, and the third was four. Those are only the ones we know of and were partly identified by the fact they all have developed HIV. There may be more that we just don't know about yet."

"Those poor little tykes. Unfortunately for them, they won't be able to achieve closure. Nolan died yesterday."

"We'll need to get a copy of the death certificate so that we can close our file." The doctor opened a folder and gave me the particulars I needed to be able to obtain a copy of the death certificate. "Thank you for your help." Ranger and I stood up and shook the doctor's hand, then followed him out the door.

"That's that, then", said Ranger as we got into his car. "You're all cleaned up on cases."

"Not quite. Lula texted me earlier this morning and said that she has two more files for me, Connie gave me three more yesterday, and I have some files to research. Life goes on."

"But instead of having an insane workload, you'll be working normal hours."

"Rex will appreciate that. I'll finally have time to clean out his cage."

"I'll appreciate it, too."

"I was thinking, we have never gone to see a movie together. Is there anything on right now that you want to see? Do you even know what's playing? I don't."

"Me neither."

"Are you interested?"

He smiled. "Hell, yeah, I'm interested."


End file.
